Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey
by dmandog056
Summary: The boys are at it again! Hiroto's plans are getting a wrench in the works, as the boys get to work, doing what they do best. "Aren't there guys trained for this?"-Sweetwater "They're too expensive to waste, so we're going instead."-Sarge [Heavy AU]
1. Meet the Boys

BATTLEFIELD: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Chapter 1: Meet the Boys

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

(Play the Song: The Beast by Milt Buckner)

'So, I guess it all started when I got assigned to 222nd army battalion, B-company, there I was an average joe who crashed a Blackhawk into an officer's car. I got assigned to the unit in the army where they raked together all the misfits, screw-ups and hell-raisers in the army. Bad company, my squad Bravo-One-Charlie, we were the bottom of the barrel. Our company was the cannon fodder keeping the Russians busy while the rest of the army got ready. My Squad was a four-man fire team consisting of, Haggard, Sweetwater, Sarge and me. Haggard is a Texan, as Texan as a Texan can get, he's our team's demolition expert. He also managed to blow up the largest American ammo dump near Paris. Sweetwater is our tech guy, a nerd if I ever saw one, he's from New jersey. He accidently leaked a virus into a secured military network and instead of locking him up, the military transferred him to B-company. Sarge, or Redford as he's told me before, was the 1st known volunteer for bad company, he figured he'd get his career cut short, not his life. Then there's me, Preston Marlowe, the new guy, as I used to be known. We'd fought two wars against the Russians; saved a deposed dictator, killed a mercenary leader, stole and returned a truckload of gold under duress, searched for a super weapon, lost a good friend, killed a Russian colonel and stopped his invasion of Texas, and pushed the Russian army out of north and south America. We went from expendable, to disposable elite, go figure. And now we'd been volunteered by SPECACT to go on a black op, again.'

-US ARMY H.Q.-Fort Lesley J. McNair-WASHINGTON D.C.-PRESENT DAY- 8:00 AM EST-1300 ZULU TIME

"Damn We've been wearing combat fatigues so long, I forgot how much the standard class-A uniform chafes my ass." Said haggard.

"Hey at least we're here comfy in D.C., not getting our collective asses scorched off or frozen, out in the middle of a warzone." Said Sweetwater.

"Guys, I think you two had better calm down before Sarge gets back with the coffee, and chews you out, again." Said Preston "But you've got a point there sweets, still I prefer to shoot rather than salute."

The three soldiers were sitting down on a bench, in a hallway, in the army high command building. Sarge had gone for coffee around five minutes ago. Sweetwater and Haggard continued to bicker about military dress code, while Preston sat there and sighed shaking his head. The three of them behaved like siblings, Preston/Marlowe was the well-meaning oldest brother, Haggard/Haggs the destructive middle child, Sweetwater is the nerdy little brother. Sarge considered the three of them like his bastard kids, somebody has to keep these knuckleheads in line and breathing.

"What have you boys been talking about while I was gone, you know what never mind. Here's the coffee. Oh, Haggs and Sweetwater, shut up." Sarge said shaking his head and passing out the drinks.

"So Sarge when's Braidwood supposed to call us in for our briefing?" Marlowe asked curious about their next mission.

"Pretty soon Preston. From what I already know, it's supposed to be a spec op in japan." Sarge replied calmly.

"Why japan? There isn't anything going on there. Nothing that would need our expertise anyway." Sweetwater chimed in.

"If you shut the hell up and wait, we'll find out." Sarge said with slight irritation.

"Yeah Sarge, something doesn't sit right about this." Haggard said cautiously agreeing with Sweetwater.

"I don't like it either, but this comes with working for SPECACT. Besides, the hazard pay is good enough, and my retirement keeps getting postponed." Sarge admitted with exasperation.

"Well whatever happens, Bad Company until the end, right?" Preston said in an attempt at camaraderie.

The band of brothers all bumped fists in agreement. A few minutes later, General Braidwood sent a messenger to find the four misfits and bring them to his office. They were in Braidwood's office 5 minutes later.

"Gentleman, have a seat." Braidwood told the four soldiers, gesturing to the chairs behind them. The four of them sat down and the general began their briefing.

"Do you four remember the event from the late 1990's, the island surfacing?" The general asked calmly.

"Yes sir, an entire unnamed fighting force marched on it, they disappeared. What does that have to do with us?" Redford replied.

"Sergeant, this information is heavily classified, if anyone asks don't tell. The corporation MBI is responsible for the disappearance of that force all those years ago, more appropriately its CEO Minaka Hiroto. His discovery of the island's treasures led to the founding of MBI, and subsequently from initial reports we have from that day, it was those treasures that led to the destruction of that force. Officially we had no involvement in that operation. Unofficially, those were our tanks and one of our ships that participated in what occurred. Latest intel suggests that Minaka is up to something that threatens US interests in japan, politicians can't do anything officially, so you four are going in. What exactly, we don't know, which scares the shit out of us. He's already purchased Tokyo for himself and renamed it, as a start of things to come. You and your team are going to be sent to Camp Zama, Japan. There you will receive further instruction, and meet up with a delta team who will get you past the orbital laser defense grid MBI has established to keep us or any other unauthorized personnel out. CIA speculates that the grid serves a dual purpose, to keep trespassers out and something else in. As to what the spooks have no idea."

"Why send us in sir? We perform better at field ops like search and destroy, not cloak and dagger. Why not send in the delta team instead?" Sweetwater asked cautiously.

"Because private, Minaka won't be expecting you four. You are unorthodox and lethal, you four are unpredictable, you think outside the box. Our operatives don't, they play by their set of rules, you four don't, that's why." Braidwood answered coolly.

"He's not wrong." Haggard stated plainly.

"Haggs shut up." Sarge said flatly.

"Uh sir, did you say something about an orbital laser defense grid?" Preston asked out of confusion and fear.

"Yes, I did, that's why the delta team is going to walk you in to the AO." Braidwood answered calmly.

"Oh, then not to sound like an idiot but, how good is the hazard pay sir?" Preston asked in a slightly scared tone.

"Boys, if you do a good job on this, Uncle Sam will give you four enough cash to retire early, and then some. Or in sergeant Redford's case, on time. As per the norm you won't have any official support, if you screw up we will deny any and all involvement, and you will be on your own. That said you have full autonomy in your approach to how you put a stop to whatever is going on in that city. Make deals, kill bad guys, fight the good fight, get the job done. Can you do that?"

"We'll get it done sir." Sarge replied.

"Glad to hear it sergeant, as a little good luck present, an old friend of yours, mike-one-Juliet will be your handler for the duration of this operation." Braidwood said with a slight grin on his face.

Haggard and Sweetwater bro fisted at the mention of their favorite operator Miss July being their handler. Preston had a smile on his face at thought of seeing miss July in person and having her as their controller for the op. Sarge just grunted ambiguously, trying to act professional and macho for the moment.

"You 4 will report to Joint base Andrews tomorrow at 5:00 am sharp tomorrow to leave for the land of the rising sun. when you reach Camp Zama, ask for Colonel Sherman Barclay, he'll be taking the reins from there, dismissed."

"Bravo-one-Charlie, attention!" Sarge ordered to his troops and all four of the stood at attention.

"Fall out!" Sarge ordered again and all of them took a step back and turned to their right exiting general Braidwood's office.

"So, what's the plan Sarge?" Haggard asked with adventure on his mind.

"Same as ever, we do what we've got to do." Sarge replied in a dutiful tone.

"As if it'd be any different. this is going to be interesting." Sweetwater said with his usual grin.

"Time to go to work bad company." Preston said with determination.

'So, a few hours later we were getting our gear ready for an operation in a civilian rich environment, and an allied country, with the streets being patrolled by heavily armed private security guards and us being given full permission to be ourselves, as long as no noncombatants are harmed, that goes without saying. It was just one of those days, but I had that lingering feeling that things were going to get even stranger for us down the line on this operation. All I could do was try to put it out of my mind for the time being. The next morning, we hopped on a C-130 to California and transferred to a C-17 flying us to Hawaii with a layover to refuel. The four of us took some time to hang around the base in Hawaii even getting into some trouble, but nothing worse than what we were used to, and then we were back on the plane and reached Japan in a couple of hours.'

-END CHAPTER-


	2. Camp Zama

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 2: Camp Zama

A/N: Big shout out to Sandshrew master 317 for his creative input.

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

'So, after getting our plane ride, we touched down on the runway, Sweetwater threw up from the g-forces. Haggard just laughed, and Sarge told haggard to shut up, the same as usual. I kept my mouth shut but I couldn't help laughing a little bit. We were supposed to be the best, of the worst. My gut kept telling me that if we want to survive what's coming, we'll have to bring our A-game and then some.'

The plane had just touched down and Preston left his thoughts for the here and now. The boys of B-company were happy to be on the ground. Despite some bad memories of their previous adventure Haggard was coping pretty well with being reminded of Flynn the pilot. Flynn was a good friend who died saving the boys from being gunned down back in the jungles of brazil only for his Blackhawk to be shot down moments afterwards.

The boys met with a messenger who had been dispatched by command to bring them to Colonel Barclay. His name is private Edwards, Haggard nicknamed him Eddie. Sweetwater asked Edwards who exactly colonel Barclay is, the private responded that back in the sandbox, Barclay was one hell of a field commander. When it came to spec ops, if you want it done, get Barclay. Barclay had been a colonel in the USMC before reenlisting in the ARMY to continue his career in the sandbox after the corps pulled out. Politics were responsible for that, counter-terrorism was a low priority when it came to the Russo-American wars.

The army had continued to fight in desert, after being left out to dry by the marines who were redeployed to fight Russians in Canada back during the war. Barclay knew that the troops left behind would be unable to cope with any terror attacks without experienced leadership, so he asked the commandant personally that he be allowed to transfer to the army and continue to keep the middle east under friendly control. The commandant agreed and Barclay was back in the fight.

most operations in the middle east officially ended with the Saudis expanding their military and taking over most of the former US bases. Once the full pullout of American forces was complete except for the embassy and a joint forces base Barclay was transferred to Camp Zama for the foreseeable future of his career.

The boys were amazed to hear about Barclay and the loyalty he showed to his forces, if Barclay was their commander now, they were going to be in it for the long haul. They made their way to the base commander's office to meet with the colonel and receive their orders and intel on the rest of their mission.

"This Barclay guy, sounds like a guy who kicks ass in a fight." Said Haggard

"My dad told me about me about Barclay's uncle, a general back in the Vietnam war. It looks like Barclay followed his uncle's footsteps." Preston said coolly.

"As long as he doesn't act like an ass, I really don't want him constantly breathing down our necks." Said Sweetwater.

"He's our commander now, if he says jump, we jump. If he says fight, we fight, same shit different guy." Sarge said finishing with his own input.

After they were done talking, the command building came into view and Edwards left pointing them in the right direction of Barclay's office. The boys made their way inside and down the hallways to the colonel, as they did they passed the heavily guarded R&D sector.

"Sweetwater, don't get any funny ideas." Sarge said irritated by Sweetwater's eyeing of the heavily guarded sector.

"What? I was just looking." Sweetwater said defensively.

"You forgot what brought you here in the first place?" Sarge retorted

"No Sarge, but still it must be awesome what they've got in there. I'm betting they've got a super soldier program or something." Sweetwater said in wonder.

"Even if we wanted to sweets, we don't have clearance for that area. So just focus on our meeting with the colonel." Sarge said irritated and exhausted from the trip.

That said, the four of them of proceeded down the hall until they saw a door with bold letters printed on it, **OFFICE OF COLONEL SHERMAN J. BARCLAY**. The colonel was a man of modest tastes when it came to his office, there was a decent sized couch and a flat screen TV on the far side of the office with the desk sitting next to the TV. On the wall, next to a window over-looking the airfield, was a case filled with medals and commendations. On the desk was an assortment of classified documents and personal items. A picture of Barclay's, family a nameplate, and coffee mug. Barclay was sitting at his desk, with his hands behind his head, and he was resting his boots on a stool next to him. There was a knock at the door and Barclay answered it.

"Well I'll be a son of a bitch, you're the boys from B-Company who single handedly saved the US, have a seat on the couch."

"Yes sir, colonel Barclay sir." Sarge said as he and his men sat down on Barclay's comfy couch.

"This is one fine office you've got sir, hey you get NASCAR or the NFL on that TV?" Haggard said hoping the colonel was in the mood for sports.

"I do private haggard, but we'll discuss that after we get done with the next part of your mission briefing. I'm assuming Braidwood told you about what the spooks managed to dig up, so let's move on to current events. You four will be heading into the unknown here. I can't say I'm happy about throwing you into fire but we need to know what is going on in there, and you boys are the only ones up for the job."

"We understand sir, from what Braidwood told us, a delta team will get us in, right?" Sarge asked cautiously.

"Fireteam Hammer, they'll get you in, but it'll be a one-way trip for you. They will exfil after getting you in the city, getting four people out is easier than eight. Besides, Minaka is insane from the profile the agency put together but he is no fool. Fireteam hammer managed to get in and out once, that's how we knew something was up in the first place. Hiroto was more than aware of their infiltration, they were nearly caught in their escape. So, let me make this clear, he is not a slouch when it comes to security, if he catches you who knows what's going to happen. DO NOT let him catch you, understood?" Barclay explained with concern for his newest troops.

"We understand sir, will we have anything that will give us a leg up in the operation?" Sarge said hoping for a windfall.

"You're in luck sergeant. You remember that R&D sector you passed? You'll get a few shiny new toys to play with, courtesy of the taxpayers." The colonel answered with a smile on his face.

"Not to sound greedy sir, but anything specific?" Sweetwater piped up, interested in what they would receive as their newest gear.

"That info is extremely classified private. Tell no one about the tech you'll receive. Once I have your word and a swear on the constitution itself, I will tell you about it, before you get your new gear." The colonel said with a very serious tone.

"Then I, Terrance Sweetwater, solemnly swear on the US constitution to not tell a soul about the gear outside of this room."

"Do the rest of you feel the same way as private Sweetwater?" The colonel asked his men with very serious tone.

"We swear sir." The rest of the squad said in unison.

"The gear you will be receiving are Nano-suit 2.1s. your mission will serve as a field test for the suits. The previous models have a nasty habit of fusing with their operators without the appropriate under-suit. We've compensated for that by providing the operators with the aforementioned suits, the Mk.1s' are currently in service with some of Braidwood's other units. Raptor team being one of them. Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical and Crynet, designed the suit and all of its bells and whistles, raptor team had been reporting in to Hargreave himself on their performance in the field. Jacob Hargreave's corporation is one of our biggest contractors and rivals MBI when it comes to political influence. The 2.1 models you'll be testing were developed in house at area 51, with Hargreave's permission. The suits are built with alien technology that Hargreave himself asked the president and congress to officially promise not to abuse them and only manufacture a small number of suits." The colonel explained stoically.

"Does that mean we risk getting stuck in those tin cans for the rest of our lives?!" Haggard said alarmed at the suit's very dangerous hazard.

"The other models, yes. The 2.1s, not as likely. With these models, we have done our best to iron out that kink. Most likely you'll be fine, the eggheads say it's only a 9% chance of suit safeguard failure."

"These suits are highly experimental, if Minaka catches you, pray he doesn't disable the safeguards or the consequences will be severe." The colonel said stoically, emphasizing on the dangers of capture.

"W-what consequences?" Sweetwater said with fear.

"You don't want to know." The colonel said coolly.

"Let's bring on the job, the faster we do this, less risk of getting stuck with a second skin." Preston said with determination.

"Right you are private Marlowe. Gentlemen, follow me to the R&D sector." The general said gesturing to the door after he made his way out of the office. Bad company followed him to the R&D sector with Sweetwater getting more excited with every step. Haggard was actually a little nervous for once, who wouldn't be if they were risking getting a second skin for the rest of their life. Preston and Sarge were staying calm about the whole situation, neither of them had any doubts about what was coming next.

Sweetwater went wide eyed at the machines and gadgets being designed inside the R&D sector. Haggard teased him about being like a kid in a candy store. Sweetwater fired back about haggard being a baby about a lousy 9% chance of suit safeguard failure. The two of them argued on the subject while Marlowe shook his head. Then Sarge told them to shut up, he was annoyed at the boys like usual but, was still very impressed by the scope of the base's highly classified R&D sector.

There were scientists and engineers of all kinds moving back and forth between projects. Guns, laser weapons, even a plasma gun prototype. One of most interesting was a railgun prototype that they were building for handheld use in the field. Eventually they reached the Nano-suit showroom, where the suits of champions were stored.

The suits were magnificently designed, with each suit giving an intimidating appearance for sheer charisma factor in battle. Every suit was different, yet similar, showcasing the previous models all leading up to bad company's experimental models that were custom designed for them with their own added quirks. Their suits resembled the ones that rarely saw action for the USMC back during the Russo-American wars.

The four of them donned their suits with help from doctors, engineers and other personnel. Preston adjusted to his new suit like he was born to wear it. Haggard felt like the suit was a little tight in the crotch, but the suit adjusted to his physiology and he soon felt comfortable. Sweetwater couldn't help but jump for joy at the high-tech nature of the Nano-suit it was like a dream come true for him. But he jumped a little too high and his head broke through the roof to the next floor. He was okay but his heavily armored teammates had to yank him out of the next floor from below. Sarge adjusted to his armor with a small degree of difficulty, but the old soldier got used to it and he could move like he was lighter than air.

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: I've altered the Crysis timeline and mixed it with Battlefield: Bad Company and Sekirei. The story is taking place in the 2010s. In my time-line the Russians were the ones who the US went to war with not North Korea. Lingshan is a Russian conflict that happened off the coast of south america, the Russians were the ones who were battling for control of the lingshan islands against the US. That was part of the same conflicts in which Bad company participated. Now most weaponry that bad company will be using is today's modern combat weaponry, vehicles and not Crysis era. The keyword is most. I've matched up the timelines to coincide with each other. The lingshan part of the war was kept from the public eye and disguised as a nuclear test. Basically replace the North Koreans with the Russians for events in the Crysis timeline that pertain to them.


	3. Operation: Cold incision

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 3: Operation: cold Incision

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking English"

" _Talking Japanese"_

' _Thinking Japanese'_

(Play the song: Sharp Dressed Man by ZZ Top)

'So, we had our own tailored business suits, I felt like I could move a move a mountain with my hands. I have got to admit that with the new power in my hands, it's like I'm invincible. All of us were wearing these suits, in our hands this kind of power can make miracles happen. I heard the stories about the other suits, now I could make my own stories. Just have to keep in mind that we're only human.'

The boys had begun testing their suits in the underground testing facility the base had built for training Nano-suit operators. The boys were putting their skills of destruction to use, their already decent physical capabilities and skills were amped to 11 by the suits. Recoil from their weapons was almost completely absorbed by the strength enhancing Nano-fiber mesh encompassing their bodies.

Marlowe's aim improved exponentially, his targets were being eviscerated by the dead-shot accuracy he now possessed with a custom M16 rifle. The same goes for Sweetwater with his custom M60 being on target despite the heavy recoil from sustained fire. Haggard used his new head mounted laser designator to keep his guided SMAW rockets on target and tracking any airborne threats he shot at. Sarge was using his newly found speed to swap between and take down targets almost effortlessly, the suit's ability enhancements were proving invaluable to the soldiers of bad company. When they ran a course for basic combat training they excelled. When they lifted weights, they could flip over a Humvee without even trying. When they worked together to fight an army of drones, they won with flying colors. the boys had all chosen their gear, Marlowe would be using an M16 rifle with an adjustable stock, acog scope, grenade launcher and laser sight. His other two weapons for ranged combat were an M9 pistol with a laser sight and an M107 Barret .50cal sniper rifle. Haggard chose a SMAW rocket launcher, an M4 rifle with, acog scope laser sight and an under-barrel shotgun with grenade slugs and an M1911 .45 pistol. Sweetwater stuck with his scoped M60 that now fires .308 JSP ammunition, an M1014 shotgun with extended tube, red dot sight and adjustable stock. Sarge chose an M16 with a similar loadout to Marlowe except sarge picked an M1911 .45 and an M14 EBR with hybrid sight, adjustable stock and under-barrel grip.

Bad Company was just what they needed to be, themselves above and beyond their best.

"Is it just me, or did we become the Avengers?" Haggard said happily.

"If we're the Avengers then I'm Iron man." Sweetwater said with a cocky tone.

"Naw, you're more like Bruce Banner, the nerd." Haggard said in a taunting mood.

"You mean the hulk, right?" Sweetwater said trying argue with haggard.

"No, you're the nerd. Plain as the glasses that are usually on your face CSI new jersey." Haggard said coolly.

"I am not the nerd. I prefer intellectual." Sweetwater said trying counter Haggard's verbal barrage.

"You are too a nerd." Haggard fired back.

"I am not. You damn dumb knucklehead."

"Are too. You should work on your comebacks, they stink."

"Your delivery needs work Hags. Where did you learn comedy, a graveyard?"

"Oh, ha hah ha. At least I know to quit when I'm a head."

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Sweetwater said indignantly.

"Shut the hell up you two, now!" Sarge shouted angrily.

"B-but Sarge!" Haggard and Sweetwater said in sync.

"Both of you shut up! And if we're the avengers I'm Captain America, Preston's war machine, Sweetwater you're Spider-man and Hags is Wolverine." Sarge said finishing the argument.

"I'm good with that." Preston said trying to ease the tension.

The members of bad company were all doing their thing as usual. After practice and the argument, they had gotten used to their armor for the most part but still needed to tryout the cloak, nano vision, and maximum armor modes. They were almost ready to begin the next phase of their mission after taking some time to relax and prepare themselves mentally for what was going to happen later. The four of them took their time relaxing with colonel Barclay watching a football game in his office, having some beer and eating nachos. The boys and colonel all cheered except for Haggard when the other team made a touchdown.

"Hags, you owe me five bucks. The colts won, cowboys lost, pay up."

"Here you go Sarge." Haggard said begrudgingly pulling out his wallet and giving five US dollars to Sarge.

After the game was over night had fallen and the operation was set to begin. First though, they had to meet up with miss July, their old friend from their first adventure together. She was a young brunette in in her late 20's with a very shapely figure and a pretty face to boot. If anyone could make a class-A US Army uniform look hot she did, and she did it good. The boys were all giving her compliments and she rebuffed haggard and sweets advances respectively. Then the colonel showed up and told them it was game time.

"Boys once you get into the city, you're on your own. We won't be able to get any transmissions in or out so it's all up to you once you reach the harbor. Good luck Bad Company." The colonel saluted to the team. And they saluted back. The boys all made their way to the runway to meet with fellow ops team, Fireteam Hammer.

"Time to nut up or shut up." Haggard said uttering a badass catch phrase.

"You got that from zombie-land, didn't you?!" Sweetwater said killing the moment.

"Yeah, it's one of my favorite newer movies, and I like that catch phrase." Haggard replied.

"Sweetwater, just shut up." Sarge said irritated as usual

"Ok, fine." Sweetwater said shutting up.

(Play the song: Millionaire by Queens of the Stone Age)

The four of them reached Fireteam Hammer's location in a hangar off of the runway, the 2 teams greeted each other with professional courtesy. Well professional for Fireteam Hammer at least anyways. The 8 soldiers then proceeded to board a civilian ferry that would get them and a custom high speed Humvee into the city through the harbor. The soldiers reached the coast and boarded the ferry into the city.

The Humvee had been customized with a browning .50cal machinegun, high powered V-10 big block gasoline engine with racing suspension, turbo and nitrous kits, and was painted desert tan similar to the armor of Bad Company. All US markings had been erased from the vehicle to complete the visage that Bad Company would be assumed to be mercenaries by any authorities who would attempt to capture them. The team were all ready for combat, the city was similar in appearance to any other major metropolis, high towers, small businesses, but one building in particular stood above the rest. MBI tower, the throne of their soon to be foe Minaka Hiroto. The teams were all settled in more or less, in position for battle. The ferry reached the harbor and docked at a concrete pier.

The Humvee was unloaded with the engine being kept to a purr, to keep it confused with the sound of the ferry's idling motor. Then the harbor lit up around them, they were expected by Minaka and his forces. Just then a grey-haired woman wearing a black leather top, grey kimono-like jacket, black boots, stockings and a black mini skirt approached the fireteams' vehicle. Her cohorts, a pink-ette with red combat gloves, and a slender white haired girl with razor sharp bladed gauntlets followed her. The boys stayed in the vehicle much to their chagrin while the grizzled Fireteam Hammer shivered in fear at the sight of their approaching enemies. The gray-haired woman gave a sadistic laugh and grinned menacingly at her prey. The soldiers who had seen the horrors of war, were used to fear in face of death but this woman and her associates gave off an aura that made anyone flee in terror.

She drew her sword and rushed the soldiers, they responded with a barrage of bullets that just kept missing her. The hail of lead seemed to only annoy her as they screamed in fear, which she enjoyed. Bad company had enough and rolled the vehicle out of the ferry, Preston hopped out of the driver's seat as grey-hair cut down 2 members of Fireteam Hammer. Just as soon she was about to kill another member of the panicking soldiers, Preston charged in and caught her sword between his bare armored hands. The grey hair was surprised, no mere human possessed this kind of strength, to her humans were inferior and to be despised. But this armored warrior had stopped her cold without even trying. Then the soldier in armor spoke in a distorted tone that made him sound as if he were a machine.

" _Leave them alone witch. If you want a fight, fight me!"_ Preston said as he pulled her sword to the side and headbutted her. The speed in which he did it surprised even bad company who already had an idea of what the armor could do. Preston then punched her in the stomach sent her flying backwards. She recovered in mid-air and somersaulted landing on her feet. She wiped the blood from her lip and readied her sword, her eyes half-lidded with bloodlust towards the armored lone soldier. She charged at Preston again swinging her sword at points that she perceived as weak spots, only to be met in kind with a large combat knife. The knife block had made her even more annoyed by the fact she couldn't kill this weakling. She Karasuba, the black sekirei, couldn't kill a puny human in a tin suit, the thought boiled her blood. Granted he was standing half a foot taller than her because of his suit, but he was still human trash. Her cohorts the other members of the disciplinary squad, Benitsubasa and Haihane, were stunned by the fact that there was a human that could give their leader the fearsome Karasuba, a run for her money.

"Is that all you've got?! I can do this all night! Huh! Bring it on!" Preston shouted angrily bringing his fists up into a fighting stance.

" _You worm! How dare you challenge me! I am the Black Sekirei, Karasuba! And you will die human!"_ Karasuba shouted back in a venom filled tone.

Haggard hopped out of the vehicle and moved to get the last 2 members of fireteam hammer into the vehicle with Sarge and Sweetwater covering him. Karasuba noticed this and signaled to her underlings to kill them. Benitsubasa and Haihane begrudgingly followed their master's orders and moved in to eliminate the last 2 unarmored soldiers. Haggard intercepted the Pink-ette but was unable to stop the slasher from killing Fireteam hammer's last two members, even with Sarge and Sweetwater keeping a steady stream of gunfire raining down on the nimble killer. Their blood was spilled and Haggard was furious, he clashed fists with Benitsubasa, slugging it out punch for punch. Sarge got into the driver's seat and honked the horn.

"We have to go, Fireteam Hammer is gone! There's nothing we can do now! We'll get payback against these motherfuckers later, there's heavy armor moving in, for now we have to move! Get in the goddamn vehicle now! That's an order boys!" Sarge shouted ordering his team to retreat from the battlefield.

Haggard turned on his helmet's translator function and shouted in Japanese.

" _This isn't over you daughters of bastards! We'll be back and you will regret it! You hear me?!"_

" _You aren't getting away!"_ Benitusbasa shouted at Haggard, but he gave her a swift uppercut, stunning her and ran back to the Humvee.

"Marlowe, disengage. That bitch will get what she deserves later, but right now soldier, we are leaving!" Sarge shouted to Marlowe over the radio, who begrudgingly broke off of fighting with the sword swinging psychopath.

" _I'll be back witch, you'll pay for what you've done. You got that?!"_ Marlowe said in Japanese punching Karasuba upside her head, and making a mad dash for the vehicle as a tank that had been purchased by MBI, rolled into the docks. Marlowe made it to the vehicle, jumped in the driver's seat and gunned the motor, getting a great burnout on take-off. Marlowe swerved around the sekirei, who dodged the high-speed truck, and swapped paint with the tank as it turned its barrel to fire on the Humvee. The boys then escaped to the crowded streets and were being chased by other privatized military vehicles left and right. Thanks to the engine that Sweetwater and Haggard had worked together to build, they left the other vehicles in the dust. Preston activated the nitro kit and they took off like a bullet, leaving the crowded city center and making their way into a residential sector of the city.

MBI TOWER-CONTROL ROOM-around the same time

Takami was already stressed about her day, with her incompetent subordinates constantly annoying her but what she was about to hear was the last thing she needed. A subordinate approached her and meekly explained what had just happened. She spat out her cigarette in surprise at the news.

" _What the fuck! Four soldiers made it into Shinto-teito and escaped the disciplinary squad?!"_ Takami shouted furiously.

" _Y-yes ma'am. The soldiers have escaped our security forces and aren't coming up on satellite view. Their armor and vehicle suggests that they could be mercenaries."_

" _That is just great! Now we have a group of armed mercenaries loose in the city that risk disrupting the sekirei plan, and making my life even worse!"_ Takami ranted, making the subordinate went is pants in fear. _"Well, anything else to say?!"_

" _Y-yes ma'am, the disciplinary squad eliminated half of their force. We are looking them up in multiple databases as we speak, they appear to be the soldiers who previously escaped capture some time ago. The equipment they wore suggests that they were also most likely mercenaries. But another possibility is that they may all be American special forces that were sent here to investigate the sekirei plan."_

Just then a man wearing a high collared lab coat with an outrageous einstein-like hairstyle burst into the room. It was none other than Minaka Hiroto himself. Minaka looked around the room and then at Takami, who relayed the news to him, all of it.

" _If the Americans truly knew what was going on, they would have sent an army, no. This is a recon force or perhaps a small team sent to put a stop to the sekirei plan at most. Which means that if we either eliminate, scare off or capture them, the Americans won't risk another team or sending a major force here, without causing major political backlash. This seems to be a minor problem at best."_ Manaka replied with a grin on his face.

" _Actually sir, there is one more thing."_ The subordinate piped up.

" _Spit it out, I don't have all night."_ Minaka said impatiently.

" _They were wearing Hargreave-Rasch-Crynet Nano-suits."_ The subordinate said while shivering nervously before his unpredictable boss.

" _Hargreave, that arrogant fool. He is always getting in my way. I don't care what it costs, get me a Nano-suit prototype from Russia. The Russian suits may be slightly inferior to his suits, but I can improve it to surpass his creations with my own perfection. Besides, it'll make the game even more interesting."_ Minaka said, breaking into a classic supervillain laugh.

-END CHAPTER-


	4. Laying low (Not!)

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 4: laying low (not!)

A/N: I'm narrowing down the thinking to universal. Meaning that when it comes to thoughts, language doesn't matter.

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking English"

" _Talking Japanese"_

'We had just escaped from some of the scariest women alive on this earth, tensions were running high in our Humvee. Haggard wanted to storm the tower but, the rest of us disagreed. We found a warehouse to sleep in for the night and parked the Humvee inside. The general consensus was that we would sleep on what our next move would be and think it over in the morning. We didn't have the element of surprise anymore, if we even had it at all, now we were back to square one.'

The boys all found places to sleep among the junk and made their own areas to sleep in. Preston decided to sleep in the Humvee, eventually the boys all decided to sleep in the Humvee. They all felt safer to sleep behind armor plating. It was a habit they picked up from their time out in field. They remembered that they stopped Kirilenko, who just as bad if not worse than Hiroto.

They'd see it through, they were in tougher situations before, it wasn't the first time they were cut off from command after all. If anything, they weren't so good at stealth, so the alternative was risking moving around on the streets during the day. They'd almost forgotten about the suit's cloak ability but Sweetwater reminded the others that cloak would only get them so far. Sarge had decided that tomorrow they'd get out and start causing MBI a few headaches.

THAT MORNING

Minato Sahashi is a smart kid but he couldn't take the pressure of his big entrance exam to college and failed for the second time. It made him feel like a loser, big time. He was walking down the street talking to his mom on his cellphone and told her about his big failure. She tried to be supportive and Minato just decided to say he'd figure something out. After he hung up the call he got on a train and headed for his place. After he left the station platform he heard a girl screaming and looked up to see her fall from the sky and land on him.

The girl landed in an awkward position for Minato and he was kinda freaking out. She apologized for her landing on him, and he was stunned by how cute she was. Then from a building rooftop nearby two twin girls in skimpy outfits shot a lightning bolt at the Minato and the girl. The twins tried coaxing the girl into a fight, she refused and proclaimed that she wouldn't until she finds her ashikabi. She suddenly grabs Minato's hand and takes off running. The two of them escaped the twins and made it to the riverside.

Musubi took Minato home and he woke up the next morning to find her in his pajamas. She explained who she is Musubi No.88, and what a sekirei is to Minato. She undressed and Minato went outside in a hurry, leaving Musubi confused. After clearing things up and Minato getting a warning from his landlord, they went out to eat. After that they were attacked by the twins again. Minato bravely defended musubi from their electric attackers. Then as the next bolt was about to hit, a tan Humvee appeared and an armored figure leapt from the gunner's seat and grabbed Minato and Musubi.

The both of them were surprised by their savior and were loaded into the vehicle. Once they were all inside, the Humvee took off and they were in the clear. Musubi felt hot and her body kept telling her that Minato is the one. On instinct, she kissed him and there was a bright flash in the vehicle and pink angelic wings of light burst from Musubi's back, then they faded away. The twins saw the flash and Homura appeared nearby. The boys of bad company were really weirded out by what just happened and the vehicle spun out from their little surprise. Marlowe brought the Humvee to a stop and they emptied out opening their visors and puked from the dizziness. The boys all stared at the people they saved and they stared back.

"What the heck was that?!" Haggard was the first to break the ice.

"I don't know, but whoever they are, they have some explaining to do!" Sweetwater said pointing to the couple.

"Hey sweets cut those two some slack, I will admit that was weird. But the two chicks in S&M outfits shooting lightning at them, was even weirder." Preston said defending the couple who appeared to be only slightly younger than him.

"Hey how would you know that's what they were wearing?" Haggard said eyeing his comrade with a raised eyebrow.

"My cousin was a pervert, my aunt caught him and it didn't end well. Everyone in the family heard about it." Marlowe answered truthfully.

"Oh, well uh, ok." Haggard said dumbstruck.

"Guys, back to current events. These two kids are pretty much the same age as Marlowe over here, and one is wearing an outfit that's a little too revealing right now." Sarge said dryly.

'Who are these guys and why did they save me and Musubi. And what just happened a minute ago.' Minato thought while staring at the mystery men.

" _Thank you for saving us."_ Musubi said after pulling minato of the Humvee with her.

" _No problem little lady, just doing what we do best."_ Sarge replied in a fatherly tone.

" _Um, excuse me. Th-thank you for saving us. Can you give us a ride back to my apartment?"_ Minato asked the boys nervously.

" _Sure kid, no problem. Now where is it you two need a lift to, it's no trouble at all."_ Sarge said to a grateful Minato.

"Uh Sarge, are you sure that's a good idea?" Sweetwater asked unsure of Sarge's decision to help the boy and girl.

"Yeah, I'm sure, besides she needs a change of clothes." Sarge said pointing to Musubi's scorched top.

" _Thank you, sir. I'll tell you where it is. If you want, Musubi was going to cook something for dinner, you can eat with us."_ Minato offered to the boys whose stomachs all growled. They all looked to Sarge who agreed.

" _Thanks kid we'll take you up on that offer._ " "Everybody load up!" Sarge replied and ordered everyone into the vehicle.

After everyone buckled up, Musubi had to sit on Minato's lap. Haggard and Sweetwater snickered and Sarge told them to stop picking on Minato. Minato pointed them in the right direction and Marlowe drove on to Minato's place. They pulled up outside and filed in to the apartment. Minato apologized for his place being so small, but the boys didn't find it a problem at all. In fact, to them, it was kind of cozy.

Musubi began to cook and the boys stated to pal around with Minato after he called his sister to ask for some new clothes for Musubi. Preston stepped up and defended Minato from his sister's teasing by changing the subject. Minato's sister Yukari, was happy to talk to Preston, who lied that he was a foreign student whose cousin was staying with him and dating Minato. And she had run out of things to wear since her suitcase was stolen. Yukari was more than happy to help out, and promised to send them some of her clothes. She said that she thought Preston sounded cute before hanging up.

" _So, what are your names? I'm Minato Sahashi and that's my friend Musubi."_ Minato said in a friendly tone.

" _I'm Sergeant Samuel Clarence Redford, you already know Preston Marlowe, that's George Haggard, and Terrence Sweetwater."_ Sarge said as boys all said their hellos.

" _Nice to meet you guys."_ Minato said happily

" _I must say, that is one fine lookin' lady friend you got there."_ Haggard said gesturing to Musubi.

" _Well thanks George." Minato said to his new friend._

" _You can call me Haggard, or Hags for short little buddy."_ Haggard said while giving Minato a hearty handshake.

Just then the TV in the corner room sprang to life and the soldiers all used their suits' cloak mode to disappear. Minato went over to investigate but then the man on the screen asked him not to shut off the TV. The man congratulated Minato for his winging of Musubi and she came into the corner room and greeted the man warmly.

The man then informed Minato of his identity, Minaka Hiroto, and Minato was a little surprised. He was then informed of how he knew of who Minato is and how he knew Minato failed the exam. He then proceeded to inform him of the game he was now a participant of. He warned minato of the consequences should he tell anyone about the game. Minato was really freaked out by the thought of what would happen.

Minaka also explained that if his new friends attempted to report in to their superiors they'd share his fate. Minaka then revealed that he knew their identities and made an offer of amnesty to the boys of bad company should they choose to participate and either aid Minato or wing sekirei for themselves, otherwise Minato and Bad Company would face the same consequences as stated before. Minato gave his summary of what the mad genius had said to him, he was impressed by Minato's ability to learn fast. Minaka said goodbye to musubi and the TV switched off.

There was a sudden knock at the door. Minato answered it, a box was shoved in his face by a courier, who slammed the door shut and left just as quick as he arrived. Minato wondered what it was and a minute later they all found out as Minato opened it to reveal Musubi's new clothes. Musubi began to change into her new clothing and all the boys filed out.

Except for Minato who musubi asked to wait, she declared to him that she'd fight for him and they'd win together. Just then Minato's landlord walked up the stairs and gave Minato the boot and 2 days to move out, for breaking the rules. Minato went home hunting in the morning. He was rejected by the clerk at the apartment listing place for the 15th time, for lacking all of the prerequisites.

Minato shuddered at the thought of moving back in with his mother, and resumed the search until nightfall. The two of them, Minato and Musubi sat on a park bench and it began to rain. Musubi and Minato had a heart to heart moment, to her Minato is the most special person in the world. Haggard and Sweetwater were watching from nearby marveling at the prospect of love between their friends. After Minato and Musubi were done talking, Musubi created a whirlwind and the two of them took to the sky. That surprised the hell out of Haggard and Sweetwater, who both promised to never speak about what they just saw, ever.

The couple spent a moment in the air before falling back down to earth, Haggard and Sweetwater ran to catch them, instead a tree mysteriously broke their fall. Haggard and Sweetwater were relieved to find that their friends were okay. The moment was interrupted when, the lady whose back yard they were in, offered to help them out. She was a little suspicious of the men in advanced armored combat suits but Minato said they were friends from the military who had come to visit. The lady relaxed after Minato explained their reason for the attire they wore.

They went inside and received first aid, from the woman and her tenant. Miya is the name of lady who owns the property, the guy who applied first aid to Minato asked what they were up to in the yard and why the two guys with him wore armor, and Minato remained evasive, remembering the stern warning of MBI's CEO. He made up a quick story about the wind and told him the same thing that he told Miya, that satisfied the guy's curiosity. Musubi had borrowed a kimono from Miya and she looked good in it. Miya was very pleasant about the whole thing being reminded of her husband who had passed on. she formally introduced herself as Miya Asama, and the guy introduced himself as Kagari and the gang introduced themselves respectively. Miya offered them dinner to which they all accepted.

After having some food, which haggard had a hard time eating from being used to using forks, a young woman dressed in nothing but her lingerie, slid the door open and caused the men in the room to go wide eyed and nearly spit their food out at her beauty. Her name is Uzume as confirmed by Kagari, Minato asked Miya what exactly her place is, and she replied that it is a boarding house. haggard and Sweetwater stared at Uzume's assets with drool running from their mouths, she was hotter to them than miss July.

Uzume noticed this and wasn't shy about her good looks, when the two soldiers were done gawking Haggard started hitting on her, she turned him down. Uzume explained how things were at the inn and that they were looking for some more normal tenants, Miya glared at her with a terrifying invisible purple aura surrounding her. Sweetwater and Haggard shivered at Miya, they did not want to get on her bad side, she was worse than Sarge. Minato asked if Miya wanted some new residents and she accepted, Sweetwater asked if the rest of their unit could stay and Miya said yes. Sweetwater called Sarge and Marlowe over the radio and told them they'd found a more comfortable living space.

Sarge was skeptical at first, but decided to move in since it was better than the old warehouse they used for a hideout. Preston fired up the Humvee, Sarge rode shotgun, they drove to Maison Izumo and parked out front. Sarge went inside, greeted Miya, and thanked her for her hospitality. To her it was no trouble at all and they'd discuss terms and conditions in the morning. Haggard went to see Minato in his new room, and stumbled in on Minato and Musubi having an awkward moment, he laughed with a sweat drop on the back of his head and went to hang out with the boys instead.

Preston had gone out for a walk that night, after reaching Maison Izumo, he told Sarge he'd be back after he cleared his head. Sarge understood and let Preston be, he'd inform the others so no one would worry about where he was. Preston had reached the park and was wondering to himself with all kinds of things on his mind.

'What the hell have we gotten ourselves into? We're super soldiers, who have a friend whose life is on the line now. I remember the old days, the adventure, the freedom, the gold and the fact that we were damn cannon fodder to those, fucking four-star jackasses. It was just a simple search and destroy mission, I should have learned by now, nothing's ever that simple. I won't let Minato end up like Flynn, it wasn't our fault, I know that but I can't help feeling that he'd still be alive if we just let sleeping dogs lie. It's no use thinking about what I should've done, I can only focus on what I do in the here and now.'

As Preston walked on he saw a girl, in nothing but a lab coat with a strange symbol on her forehead, sitting on a bench. Preston had a funny feeling about her, almost like a tortured kindred spirit of sorts. As he approached her, the feeling he had, began to grow stronger like something was calling him to her. She looked at him with the eyes of someone who was broken, as if she were thrown away, useless. He knew the feeling well; his squad had been left out to dry by their own government in Serdaristan. He felt some contempt for them, but he was just an expendable asset and he knew it. But at least he had Bad Company with him, they are and will be a true band of brothers until the end of the line for all of them.

He approached the girl, and she was slightly afraid of the mysterious soldier in front of her, but Preston showed her he meant no harm. He pulled off his Nano-suit helmet slowly and clipped it to his hip. He extended his hand to her. She hesitated at first but, she took it and looked into his eyes, she could feel the pain he shared with her. A man approached, with a bright haired teenager next to him. Preston's instincts kicked in, he put the girl's hand down and spun around 180 degrees. Putting his Nano-Suit helmet back on, he drew his pistol and pointed it at the pair of men in front of him.

He put his left arm behind him, as If trying to shield the girl. She had never felt this from anyone, she was guarded before yes, but only because she was a piece of property to MBI. This armored young man who found her, this kindred spirit was trying to protect her out of kindness, not any other motive at all. Her heart fluttered from the experience, she felt something she had never known before, what it was exactly, she couldn't tell at all.

(Play the song: God's gonna cut you down [Battlefield 1 Remix] by Johnny Cash)

" _Leave us alone, now!"_ Preston snarled angrily.

" _I'd step away from her if I were you. I'll take her off of your hands for you. We can do this the easy way or…."_ The younger man started to say but was cut off by Preston, firing his pistol at the ground in front of them.

" _Oh well, the hard way is more entertaining anyway. Mutsu, dispose of him."_ The young man ordered to the sword wielding adult standing next to him. The sword wielding sekirei charged at Preston, who responded by clapping his hands onto to the sword, just like his previous battle with a sword wielding opponent. Mutsu was shocked to see the armored warrior do what even a very few sekirei could even try to attempt. Whoever he was, Mutsu knew that he was an experienced fighter and wouldn't hesitate to fight until the end for the sekirei he was bravely defending. Preston wrapped one hand around the sword and brought the other back for an extremely furious punch.

" _I told you to go away!"_ Preston shouted as he brought his fist forward and sent his opponent flying straight backwards into a large tree splintering it into large pieces. Mutsu picked himself up slowly and brushed off the dust. Preston resumed his defensive stance and stood his ground in front of the girl.

" _I am warning you, do what you will, I will not be defeated!"_ Preston shouted once more stomping his foot down and leaving cracks in the concrete, and a plume of dust swirling around him and the girl. Mutsu steeled himself, his opponent was equal to or stronger than a sekirei. The soldier before him showed strength and honor, appearing to be truly unafraid of the lethal sekirei standing before him.

" _I'm really getting annoyed now. Fine, you can keep her. Mutsu, let's go."_ The teenager ordered to his sekirei. Mutsu sheathed his sword and bowed to his opponent, Preston relaxed his stance and nodded his head. The boy and his sekirei left, Preston relaxed, took off his helmet and looked to the girl. She felt that feeling even more so now, it was as if fate called her to him.

Though she had already winged herself, she felt her body heat up and it was begging her to kiss him. She fell to her instincts and smashed her lips against Preston's own, caressing him tightly as she felt true happiness from his presence. Preston was greatly surprised by this and stood there wide eyed, as he was passionately kissed by the woman he had protected, unaware of what his helmet was saying.

"DNA damage detected. Beginning repair procedure, please stand by. Error, unknown DNA variant detected, compiling. Please stand by. DNA variant analyzed, running assessment procedure. Please stand by. DNA assessment complete, finalizing procedure. DNA assessment finalized, reset complete, repair sequence complete."

Suddenly the girl's body began to glow brightly, and then a bright flash occurred, with large beautiful white angelic wings sprouting from her back, and snow fell around them, all while she wailed happily. Preston hugged her on instinct and deepened the kiss between the two of them. Preston, looked into her eyes and he could feel the strong emotions of pure happiness resonating with his own. For the briefest moment, the two of them shared one mind and soul, both of them connected forever by love, and the link an ashikabi has to their sekirei.

" _I am Akitsu, sekirei NO.7, this is the ice of my pledge. Shatter the misfortunes of my ashikabi!"_ Akitsu proclaimed as she held her new ashikabi tightly. Preston was stunned at this revelation, now he had an even greater obligation to protect her, and no other choice at all than to play Hiroto's game. Sarge was not going to be happy about this to say the least, but even though he'd be angry for Preston's indiscretion, sergeant Redford at his core is a good man, and would understand Marlowe's situation.

"I'm Marlowe, I love you snow angel." Preston proclaimed to Akitsu and they kissed once more, with the frost in the air giving the appearance of an angelic halo over the two lovers. The snow angel Akitsu, had found her true knight in shining armor at last.

-END CHAPTER-


	5. Getting Settled

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 5: Getting Settled

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

MBI TOWER-CONTROL ROOM

Alarms were blaring wildly as the screen came up with the most unexpected thing anyone at MBI could never predict. A scrapped number sekirei, Akitsu No.7 at that, had not only reverted to her pre-winged state, thus cured of her condition, was winged by one of Bad Company's soldiers, Preston Marlowe. Marlowe and Akitsu's faces were on the screen now side by side. Takami shook her head and spat out her coffee, not only had her son failed his college entrance exam, winged a sekirei and been kicked out of his previous apartment. Now one of his new friends, a soldier from Bad Company had winged a sekirei for himself. Akitsu, who was one of the extremely powerful upper single digit numbers, who had been declared scrapped by Takami herself. Minaka entered the room and marveled at what had transpired.

"This is the power of the Nano-Suit. It truly is a marvel of technology, now I have my own suits to play with. Hargreave's tunnel vision has opened a gateway to limitless possibilities, especially when combined with a sekirei and improved to my absolute perfection. Oh, I simply must congratulate Private Marlowe for his winging of No.7 and un-scrapping her. Now he has no choice but to play the game as I see fit. I will forgive Mikogami for his attacking Private Marlowe. After all, that suit allows him to play the game even better. So I'll allow sekirei to attack bad company and for them to participate personally in battle, as long as they wear the Nano-suits." Minaka ranted with a devilish grin on his face.

Takami was smoking cigarettes and thought to herself. 'How is that possible? Is the suit that young man wears truly that advanced, altering the DNA of anyone the wearer chooses? Kagari told me of the soldiers my son befriended, I don't particularly care for them, but he can choose his own friends. They may be the key to bringing down Minaka so I'll tolerate them for now I suppose. Yukari told me her opinion of Marlowe from when they talked, even though he lied, it was to help Minato, him I accept.'

Takami finished her cigarettes and went back to work, her thoughts were with her son and his companions. Minaka had gone to one of MBI's engineering labs and began to tinker with his newly acquired Russian Nano-Suits, specifically the ones meant for the disciplinary squad. Karasuba was interested with her soon to be perfected Nano-suit, it would make her job as a violent psychopath even more fun.

Benitsubasa was also eyeing the suits, hoping to get even with the soldiers in power armor, and to challenge the one who held his own against Karasuba. The fact that he held his own against Karasuba and lived, resonated with her. He charged in and did what even people with the power they had would have hesitated to do, without a second thought. There was more to that man than his suit and she knew it. The thought of him, this Private Marlowe, seemed to make her intoxicated, warm even. She had no idea why at all, was he to be her ashikabi?

Haihane grinned and she laughed manically at the idea of a new suit, her power would increase exponentially beyond her already lethal prowess. She wanted to destroy the armored men who stood their ground. No one defies the disciplinary squad, except for a select few. Those men were not that few individuals. She would enjoy tearing them apart piece by piece when the time came for their vendetta. They were meant to enforce the rules of the game and those men had broken them and escaped.

AT MAISON IZUMO-LATER THAT NIGHT

"You did what?!" Sarge shouted angrily at Preston, who sweat dropped at his sergeant's new level of anger. "Them I expected this from, not you Preston. We're stuck with her now so, she can stay. I'll tell Miya about this." He finished shaking his head and gesturing to Sweetwater and Haggard, who gawked at Preston's girl. Akitsu was stone faced and didn't say a word while Sarge yelled at Marlowe. Marlowe scratched the back of his head nervously.

Haggard and Sweetwater gave Preston some props for his new girlfriend, the new addition to their little family of fighters. Akitsu looked at Marlowe's battle brothers with a blank expression, and the two jovial soldiers returned her stare with confusion. Marlowe cleared that up with the explanation that she doesn't like being stared at. Haggard and Sweetwater understood what he meant, so they shrugged and left the room. Marlowe held Akitsu's hand, she looked at him with a very small smile and a blush.

"I will never let anything happen to you Akitsu I promise." Preston said in a firm yet sweet tone.

Akitsu's small smile grew slightly and she held Marlowe's other hand. Preston hugged her again and they shared a small kiss. Sarge returned after informing Miya of her newest tenant, Marlowe's 'girlfriend'. Sarge had explained to Miya that Akitsu needed a change of clothes considering she was only wearing a doctor's coat, the landlady was kind enough to spare a yukata and some underwear of hers for the girl, whom Preston had brought home. The two love birds were in the same boat as Minato and Musubi now, so Preston decided to explain it to Minato the first chance he got. He just hoped Musubi wouldn't go battle crazy when she meets Akitsu. Otherwise things could get out of hand, and go to hell in a handbasket pretty damned fast.

MEANWHILE IN A SMALL HIDDEN COMPUTER ROOM IN MAISON IZUMO

A girl with large glasses and a head of mild red hair, looked at a menagerie of monitors all displaying security footage from the inside of the building. The girl seemed to be the most interested in the soldiers and the two new sekireis and their ashikabis that had taken up residence there, at Maison Izumo. The armor they wore fascinated her, she searched up the suits in secure military and corporate databases worldwide, avoiding and demolishing security programs that attempted to shut her out of the systems like it was child's play.

Then her search was complete when she found their identities and the designation of their armor. US Army 222nd Battalion, Squad B1C, designation: Bad Company, Private Preston Marlowe age 19, address in Nevada USA, Private George Gordon Haggard Jr. age 23, Address in southern Texas USA, Private Terrence Sweetwater Age 21, address in New jersey USA, Sergeant Samuel Clarence Redford age 45, address in Georgia USA. Status: transferred to CIA SPECACT. Their combat records were astounding to the girl, the adventures they'd pulled off were unreal to her, especially considering they started out as cannon fodder, who went on adventures that most people would see in an action movie, and now they were super-soldiers on par with sekirei. Admittedly, the gold hunting part of their adventures was especially entertaining to her.

Their armor is Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical/Crytek, Nano-Suits, version V2.1: model USMC. The updated versions of American Military prototype Nano-Suit models designed specifically for the USMC. She poured over the specifications of the suits, discovering the potential they possessed and that the suits also physically enhanced their wearers so that even outside of the suit, their abilities and physical traits were enhanced far beyond normal limitations for enhanced survivability and preservation of the wearer. The suits' previous versions would occasionally grow into the wounds of its wearers, to preserve their lives with permanent symbiosis, if too much damage is taken to the wearer's physical body. The chance had been decreased with these models but, the risk of an almost permanent second skin still remained.

The Ideas of what those soldiers could do at their best was intoxicating for her, her nether regions felt really good from what ran through her head. She glanced over at Minato's screen and felt warm from a crush she has on him. He needed a small confidence boost, which his soldier friends were starting to provide. He seemed to appeal to her the best out of the new tenants. So, she decided that she'd experiment with him first and then, maybe with one of the soldiers or maybe not. One of them has a very territorial sekirei after all, and she did not want to end up as an ice sculpture or cross Miya, at all.

"Very interesting, very interesting indeed." She giggled to herself with a large smile on her face.

BACK WITH PRESTON

He and Akitsu he had just finished their kiss and Marlowe decided to put his helmet back on so he wouldn't forget about it somewhere. Then his radio gave on a screech, static, and then a voice that was all too familiar now.

"Congratulations Mr. Marlowe on winging a sekirei for yourself. Akitsu is one of the more powerful sekirei and it looks like you've fallen for her as well. Welcome to the game, the rules have been slightly altered since you and your teammates are wearing Nano-Suits. You and your team can fully participate in battle alongside your sekirei, as long you continue to wear the suits. But be warned, that means you and your team can also be attacked by any other ashikabis' sekireis at any time." Minaka said to Marlowe with his usual flair.

"How did you get this frequency?! It's a secure channel between Bad Company only." Preston said full of confusion at Minaka's hacking of bad company's personal radio channel.

"My dear boy it's as I told Minato, I know everything. Well goodbye Mr. Marlowe and welcome once more to the sekirei plan." Minaka said as he terminated the call.

THE NEXT MORNING

Preston had told the rest of bad company the news from last night, Sarge shook his head in exasperation while Haggard was happy to really to get into the fight. Sweetwater was very unnerved by the possibility of an attack from anywhere at any time once more. At least they were no longer at risk of causing an international incident for now but ultimately, they had no choice but to play Minaka's game. Haggard was a little anxious from not having blown something up in so long, the game was his ticket to explosions galore once more. Sweetwater began thinking, tinkering and coming up with solutions to their problem, out of his newly regained fear.

Preston had decided that today, he'd tell Minato about his situation, and help out with moving from his old apartment to Maison Izumo. He asked Sarge for the truck keys, and Marlowe was loaned some money to rent a trailer by Miya, with the promise she'd be paid back in full. Preston had secretly brought with him, some of his large lucky gold pieces he acquired from his early days with bad company, that he picked up along the way and pulled off the truck before the army caught up with them in the desert.

He figured he'd square his debt to Miya, and pay the rent for the squad and Akitsu next few months with at least two or more pieces of his gold. Preston brought Akitsu with him because she would stick to him like glue and follow him everywhere. So rather than argue with her, he'd simply allow her to keep following him. It felt like puppy love to him, and he was content with it, she didn't say much and he was a man of few words himself, it all works for him. On that note, Preston and Akitsu hopped into the Humvee and drove off to Minato's old apartment.

Preston used his suit's interface to play some music he stored in its databanks, and opened a music player function that Sweetwater had installed. Preston remotely linked it to the Humvee's stereo system and began to play his personal playlist. Akitsu had some taste in Preston's music choices, she particularly liked Paradise city by Guns and Roses. Preston felt this through his link to her and the both them listened to song as they drove. Then Believer by Imagine Dragons came on, and Preston tapped his fingers on the steering wheel to the beat. Akitsu, felt the beat was good enough for her to live with, and the lyrics reminded her of her meeting and being winged by Preston which made her smile slightly.

After the song was over they reached Minato's apartment, and the two of them strolled up to the door and saw Minato, Musubi and Yukari all talking to each other. Yukari noticed Preston and Akitsu, she was disappointed when she learned that the silent yet lovely Akitsu was already Preston's girlfriend. Akitsu clung to Preston and coldly stared at Yukari, when she realized that Yukari was attempting to flirt with her handsome knight Marlowe.

Preston sighed and smiled warmly at Akitsu from under his helmet visor. Yukari understood her reasoning for it and let it be, then Yukari took a good look at Preston's armor, and began to go fangirl crazy over it. The armor looked like it came straight out of a sci-fi flick or a video game. Minato wondered who Akitsu was, he figured that she was Marlowe's date or something and his friend would explain later, so he went back to packing with Musubi.

When she asked question after question, Marlowe repeatedly stated that it was extremely classified. Yukari then noticed a small logo on the side of Preston's helmet. **US GOVT/HARGREAVE-RASCH Biomedical/CRYNET,** Yukari was astounded by this revelation. She had been looking into visiting America and applying to work for either of the two major companies, that just so happened to be the ones who created Preston's armor. Preston mentally cursed himself for not scratching it off, that one tiny logo the IT guys at Camp Zama had forgotten to cover, grind down, or erase.

Preston stated to Yukari that she could not tell a living soul about the armor's manufacturer. Yukari promised to keep it to herself, and Preston sighed relieved. Yukari asked Preston if she could at least know what the armor is called, and Preston told her that it's a Nano-Suit. Yukari cooed in wonder at the marvel of engineering that her newest crush wore. Akitsu frowned slightly, but Preston reassured her that it was only casual talk of the suit, not the man behind it. Akitsu sensed her ashikabi's honesty and let her face return normal, she still clung tightly to Preston's side of course. Preston sighed again and smiled.

After musubi was done helping Minato pack everything up, she picked up the sack with her inhuman strength and loaded it into the trailer attached to the Humvee. Minato sweat-dropped at this and Musubi explained that it was because she is a fist type sekirei is why she's so strong. Minato made the connection that the sekireis they had encountered before were lightning types. Musubi explained the norito as well, it was a chant every sekirei had that was unique to them, and them alone.

Minato went back up the stairs and told Marlowe it was time to leave. Marlowe and Yukari said their goodbyes and Marlowe got into the driver's seat. Everyone else climbed aboard and they rolled off down the road back to Maison Izumo. Miya met them at the door and welcomed them back, they all said hello and went inside. Musubi got the large bag stuck the doorway of Minato's room and with Preston's help, after 15 minutes they had gotten the bag of Minato's belongings inside the room, Preston and Akitsu were about to leave after being thanked by Minato and Musubi. Musubi asked Preston who the girl with him was, and Preston remembered to tell Musubi, that Akitsu is actually his sekirei.

Musubi charged at Akitsu after hearing this, but Preston intercepted her, and grabbed her by the arm in a vice-like grip. Enough to hold her, but not hurt her, she asked Preston why he was getting in the way. Preston had expected this and he told Musubi that Akitsu is strictly off limits. He warned Musubi not to try attacking her again. Musubi calmed down after Minato agreed with Preston, she apologized to Akitsu and Preston and promised them it wouldn't happen again. Preston and Akitsu, calmed down and thanked her for the apology. Musubi's happy demeanor returned and everything went back to normal, well normal for them anyway. Preston and Akitsu left, with Preston holding her hand the whole way.

Musubi went to take a bath and Minato went outside to think, he remembered what he saw when he and Musubi landed in the tree. A little girl, who held out her arms as if to catch him and save his life. he walked over to the tree and touched his hand to it, the girl appeared again and asked him for help. He was startled by this and took his hand off of the tree.

A short minute later, an almost nude Uzume, jumped out a window while being chased by a towel wearing Musubi. Who was told by Uzume, while they were in the bath together, that she is also a sekirei. Musubi repeated her previous actions from earlier when she attacked Akitsu. Only this time, there wasn't a very annoyed Preston around to break it up. Which bring things to now. Uzume ran to Minato and Musubi took it the wrong way, but just then A very grumpy and tired Haggard stomped outside furious.

"What in the fucking hell is going on out here! Can't a guy sleep in peace after playing Battlefield 4 all night?!" Haggard shouted. He and Sweetwater had been up all night playing video games on a computer they 'found'. Sweetwater fixed it up, and the two of them stayed awake until 4:00 AM playing the game, that Sweetwater brought with him before they left the states, and held on to after they left Camp Zama. Musubi was intercepted by both Miya and Haggard who stopped her punch cold.

Haggard went and got Sarge, then Sarge and Miya both, chewed out Uzume and Musubi for running around outside naked, and fighting on the property. Haggard went back to sleep and Sweetwater was tinkering with the squad's guns and ammunition the whole night and day, so they'd have an edge against sekirei, the disciplinary squad, and other Nano-Suits when the need arises. Sweetwater anticipated that if they were wearing Nano-Suits, what's to stop Minaka from buying some Russian knock-offs, and creating his own from them for use against Bad Company.

-END CHAPTER-


	6. Saving Private Kusano

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 6: Saving Private Kusano

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

THE NEXT MORNING

Preston had gotten up early to do some roaming around the city, he brought Haggard and Sweetwater with him. The three of them were looking for a few things Sweetwater needed for his special weapons project, the tech parts were scattered all over the city. Some were hidden in private warehouses, some were owned by criminals, and more were able to be purchased with some help from Minato later on. The parts were all of varying degrees of difficulty to acquire but nothing that the troops couldn't handle.

The previous night Sweetwater stressed the importance of their weapons upgrades to the team during a meeting, without the upgrades their guns may as well be expensive flashy toys, considering that some of their opponents could shrug off bullets alone, and tank explosions like nothing. Haggard didn't like the thought of it one bit, an opponent he couldn't kill to little teeny tiny pieces with his trusty weapons. Sarge agreed that melee combat alone wasn't an option for them, guns solved problems that fists couldn't. Preston voiced his opinion that ranged combat would be better in the long run for sure.

So that was how it came to be, the team had spent the earlier hours of their morning gathering parts while Sarge held down the fort at Maison Izumo. Sarge had decided to spend his time that morning tuning up the truck, with a tool box and parts he found with note attached; keep fighting the good fight-a friend. Sarge didn't see anyone nearby but his gut told him it was safe to take the tools and parts so he did. Sarge was enjoying the quality time fixing the worn parts of their High-Performance Humvee. To him it was like he was home in Georgia, tuning up his own truck, in his own driveway, like any other day.

Sarge was humming to himself changing the oil, checking the timing belt and transmission. He was enjoying his morning so far, he stopped to take a break when he heard a commotion in the back yard. He figured whatever it was Miya was on her own, from what Haggard told him she could handle it alone. A few minutes later he was done working on the vehicle and started to put away his new tools, surprisingly the armor is very easy clean, the grease just rinses right of with no smell, residue, or anything. Minato ran out of the back gate, asking Sarge if he could get a lift to work.

Sarge decided he had nothing else to do so he let Minato ride shotgun. Recently, Miya had asked Sarge to remove the chain-gun on the Humvee's roof, Sarge asked why and Miya just gave him her look with that terrifying aura as usual. Sarge reluctantly agreed to remove it, and stored it in a large pressure sealed case in the room with bad company's other firearms, besides Sweetwater figured it wouldn't hurt to upgrade the chain-gun too. Sarge figured that three knuckleheads would be smart enough to stay out of trouble as long as their guns were safely locked up until Sweetwater was done with the upgrades.

Sarge turned on the radio and used the music player function Sweetwater had made for the entire squad to use in their suits. Sarge linked it to the stereo and he played Jungle Boogie by Kool and the gang. Minato wondered what he was listening to and Sarge told him it was old school American funk. Minato had never listened to it before and wanted to hear more of Sarge's music. The two of them talked about the differences between their cultures and customs, like what people could do at the movies and order at restaurants. Sarge put on some rock, Jumping Jack Flash by The Rolling Stones next, Minato liked the rhythm of this one. Sarge liked Minato's newfound appreciation for funk and rock 'n' roll. Sarge dropped off Minato and rolled on back to Maison Izumo playing old school funk beats like flashlight and burn rubber.

Back at Maison Izumo, Marlowe's snow angel Akitsu was relaxing in the bath. She was enjoying the solitude, but longed for her ashikabi to return. She knew he'd never abandon her or throw her away. He'd always be her handsome knight and she was his heavenly snow angel, the thought made her nether regions feel godly, when she remembered their first kiss and that moment in the moonlight. Her heart fluttered and she smiled once more, if anyone got between the two them it would not be pleasant.

So far, she had gotten used to the antics of her less mature roommates, namely Haggard and Sweetwater, but they still annoyed her quite a bit. The two of them seemed to be jealous of Preston having a bombshell like Akitsu. Akitsu was like a silent sister to them, whenever she caught them staring, they'd get face full snow and ice. She gave Sweetwater a shoulder so cold once that Haggard nearly died laughing because his buddy looked like jack frost from the experience. She had come view Sarge as a father figure, listening to him almost as much as Marlowe and helping him occasionally when Haggard and Sweetwater needed a lesson in discipline.

Sarge came back and asked Miya where Akitsu was. she told him that Akitsu was in the bath, and didn't want to be disturbed. Sarge got the message and went back outside to reorganize the contents of his new toolbox. The boys came back some time later around 2:00 PM, Sweetwater was so close to finishing his project now, the parts Minato had ordered online for them came a short time earlier. Sweetwater didn't waste any time and got to work fast finishing the gun mods he built. Within 30 minutes he was done and presented the boys with their newly modified guns.

Sweetwater dumbed down his explanation to the boys so they'd understand. He created a magnetic induction system that travels the length of the barrels, and invented pulse rounds that can be fired conventionally. The two creations worked in tandem with each other and separately to create an extremely powerful electric shock effect, reminiscent of superheated plasma. He also came up with very potent shock grenades, shotgun pulse slugs and static rockets. The shock was powerful enough to even bring down an extremely large grizzly bear or silverback gorilla on steroids in theory. Any electrical systems that are hit buy the rounds, grenades and rockets, can be shorted out with ease, even Nano-Suits.

The entire thing went over Haggard's head, Preston caught some of it and the same went for Sarge. Sweetwater put a hand to his forehead, and simply called them tesla rounds and the magna-charge upgrade. The magnetic induction speeds up normal rounds for better penetration, and a single tesla round to the human body was equivalent to that of a non-lethal, fully charged, Taser gun, a single magazine full to a sekirei or Nano-Suit was kryptonite, that was all they needed to know. Haggard asked sweets where he got the idea, Sweetwater told him it was actually the lightning twins who inspired his stroke of genius. They were now well equipped to deal with their foes.

The rounds were similar in appearance to batteries, loaded into a conventional feed tube, magazine or ammo chain. The chain-gun was even modified to fire the rounds and be handheld when the need arises for a for a mobile force multiplier. Musubi came to their room and asked if they could come with her to help find Minato. Sarge trusted his gut about something bad in the air, and felt like he owed the kid. So, he agreed, Bad Company grabbed their new gear and went with Musubi to find Minato.

The group made their way to Minato's job and saw the explosion from a mile away haggard was happy to finally see something go boom. The others were on the defensive, if Minato was in trouble they had to move fast. The got in the Humvee and Sarge put the on song Hold on I'm coming by Sam and Dave. Musubi liked the song, it fit the occasion perfectly in her opinion. Sweetwater slapped the chain-gun into its spot and pulled the charging handle chambering a .50cal static round he made especially for the chain-gun, and Preston's sniper rifle. The engine revved as Preston stomped on the pedal and they hightailed it to Minato.

The vehicle stopped when they saw Homura and Yomi talking to each other, straight away Sarge knew who Homura was and ordered his team to get out of the vehicle. The team then aimed their weapons at Yomi, who laughed thinking they were only tin soldiers, with toy guns. Haggard had the pleasure of giving her a shock to the system, all 30 rounds of it. This made the demo-expert of Bad Company smile. The team made their way inside after linking up with Homura, and providing support for him since he had to deal with another enemy sekirei. Yomi recovered and charged into the forest after them, taking several shortcuts getting to the green girl, Kusano, first.

Minato had a feeling and his newfound allies the lightning twins and their ashikabi Seo Kaoru, began to run to Kusano to save her. They reached Kusano just in time to save her from being dragged away by Yomi. The twins gave Yomi another shock, and Musubi and the rest of the gang showed up. Musubi stopped Yomi from slashing Minato and broke Yomi's scythe in half. The way she whined, made haggard cackle with laughter. Yomi attacked and Sarge got in the way, activating his suit's Maximum armor mode and braced for the impact. Yomi was shocked that the man was still standing.

"My turn you bitch!" Sarge used the suit's super strength to send Yomi flying straight out 30 meters away, landing on her back.

She recovered and started slashing again, taking away some of Musubi's top and revealing her upper assets. The boys would be gawking if they weren't in battle. Yomi began to insult Minato and Musubi, she attacked again and knocked down Musubi. The rest of the team stood back, this was Musubi's fight. They watched as musubi began to use what she learned from Miya earlier. She gracefully avoided Yomi's blade and ripped off Yomi's clothes. This time most of the men gawked at the sight of a naked Yomi. Musubi chanted her norito and Yomi's symbol disappeared, she was defeated and out of the game permanently.

The boys all clapped their armor-clad hands at Musubi's victory, with Sweetwater opening his visor and whistling. Meanwhile with Homura, a car pulled up and the sekirei who was battling Homura got into it. the car sped off and left Homura wondering why they left. Homura made his way back to Maison Izumo. The others hopped in the vehicle with Haggard having to hang off of the rear of the Humvee. They pulled up outside and Minato carried the sleeping Kusano on his back. The boys all liked how cute she was when she slept, she reminded Preston of his littlest cousin back home. Haggard's niece was about the same age as the little Kusano appeared to be. Sarge's cousin had a little girl who liked to call him grandpa, and to her he acted like one, if anyone else called him that they'd get a beating.

Kusano woke up, and Minato told Miya that Kusano was placed into his care, Kusano was hungry so Miya went to make something for her. A little later Kusano and Minato talked, and Kusano was winged. Musubi saw the moment and smiled at the sight of the garden that Kusano had created. Preston was standing nearby smiling. He felt a little weirded out by what Minato and Kusano did, but he knew that was how it worked, and it was fine by him, as long as that little girl was safe from the vultures out there.

Meanwhile back inside the room, Sweetwater had managed to get his hands on a TV and a game console and he and Haggard started playing Battlefield 4 on the console, while Sarge used the computer to watch Battlefield friends. And He laughed his ass off at the antics of the guys who played the same game as Haggard and Sweetwater. Preston came into the room, after he was done with the moment outside, and pulled up a chair to play games with his best bros. Akitsu came in and sat behind Preston to watch, things were looking up for the boys at last.

After the gang was done partying from their victory that night, most of them took their suits off, put them in the secure locker, and went to sleep, except for Preston and Akitsu. Preston still had the Humvee keys, and Akitsu had convinced him that she wanted him, so he took off the suit. The two of them made their way to the car, opened the door, and had some grown-up fun. Preston felt like that was the best night of his life so far. And in that respect, the two of them left the vehicle after they were done, and Akitsu felt something different about herself, almost like her step was slightly heavier, she had no idea that a new little Marlowe was in the equation now. They returned to the room, Preston put his suit away, and they went to sleep together.

-END CHAPTER-

What do you guys think about that? Marlowe has a little more at stake now.


	7. Yashima and Kocho's heroes

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 7: Yashima and Kocho's Heroes

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

THE NEXT MORNING-SUNRISE

(Play the song: Fortunate Son by Creedence Clearwater Revival)

'If I'm honest with myself, I am definitely happy right now. My old man would be pretty mad right now if he were still around. After all I did just do last night, what I promised him I wouldn't do until I got hitched. For this girl, I will marry her after this is all over. I love her and now, there's probably going to be either a little me, or a little her running around later. The army takes better care of its families than the marines, that's for sure. Colonel Barclay should be able to help me create an identity for her. Once this is over and we return to Camp Zama, first thing I'm doing is finding a chaplain.'

Preston could see it in his head, the boys & the girls in the pews, all of them dressed nicely, even Haggard, with Kusano as the flower girl. Akitsu in a snow-white wedding dress and Him in his dress blues, standing at the altar, Sarge as his best man. Both of them saying their vows, Sarge gave them the rings. The preacher did his thing, and the husband and wife kissed, Akitsu's wings shined brighter than any light in the chapel. They shined so brightly, and then Marlowe woke up from his dream.

He turned his head to his right and saw Akitsu peacefully sleeping next to him. He got up slowly, careful not to wake his soon to be wife/mother of his child. Preston ran into Miya and he put a finger to his lips, she nodded, and Preston put on a pair of socks, running shoes, shorts and a T-shirt Minato had lent him. He went outside and left for a morning jog. Preston had noticed things here, despite how crazy with the sekirei plan going on, weren't so bad.

Granted he had his battle brothers with him, and a woman he wanted to marry. Preston entered the city's central district and continued to jog at a brisk pace. He passed an alley and noticed a guy beating up a young girl, with a very large hammer nearby. Preston knew most people would either call the cops or turn away, he wasn't most people. Preston went into the alleyway and he saw the man beating the girl was about to kiss her. Preston bravely charged in, his military basic training kicking in. He grabbed the guy by the throat, and pinned him to the floor, just before he could kiss the poor girl.

"Only sick fucks beat up innocent young girls. I will end you if I catch you within a mile of her again." Preston snarled coldly to the man he held to the ground.

"It's you, The Cold Steel ashikabi of the north! Why are you here, and where's your armor?!" The man said nervously. He heard the legend of the suit wearing soldier who stood against the disciplinary squad.

"I don't need my suit to snap you in half, you arrogant, sick, motherfucker. It's thugs like you that are a part of what made me join the army. I know how to kill a man in so many ways, you'd throw up after the first few. You haven't winged her yet, I can tell. You're 'not' lucky it was me, instead of Homura who found you. Homura believes in mercy, I'm a soldier, I have a code yes, but I will not hesitate to kill you if I see you again. You got it, sick bastard, or have I not made myself clear?" Preston growled to the thug he held down, who only shivered in fear.

"Answer me, maggot!" Preston shouted in a drill sergeant tone to the thug.

"Yes sir! Please don't kill me man!" He shouted with tears in his eyes, begging the angry soldier to spare him. Preston glanced at the girl who watched, her face quivering. Preston felt every instinct he had, scream at him to kill the thug. Preston's training and discipline, coupled with his good heart told him to listen to reason. Preston lifted the thug off of the ground, and slammed him into a wall.

Preston leaned in and whispered through his gritted teeth. "Never, come, back."

The thug nodded his head, and Preston threw him to the ground. The thug ran away, like a thoroughly beaten coyote. The girl looked to Preston as if he were a superhero, she felt her heart skip a beat when he walked over to her. Preston kneeled down to speak to her and she saw a vision, she was standing next another two girls, one of them was wearing a bride's veil.

She wanted it to be her, this hero who saved her from slavery, she wanted his love. She wanted him to protect her, shield her from the evil of the world that had tried to claim her. Her vison showed an American Military Priest reading his scripture, the uniformed groom and veiled bride at the altar, were handed the rings. The vision ended when she heard Preston's voice.

"Miss, are you okay? How badly did he hurt you?" Preston said in a calm and soothing voice, to the girl who sat in front of him. She stared at him, as if she was in a trance. Preston snapped his fingers next to her ear and she seemed to be responsive to it. Her eyes widened and she began to speak.

"Is it true, are you the legendary Cold Steel ashikabi, the one who winged Akitsu and stood up to Karasuba?" she said shyly.

"Yes, I am. that doesn't answer my question though. This is about you, are you hurt miss?" Preston said firmly.

"Yes, he hurt my arm and my shoulder, then he choked me. Please help me, I have nowhere to go, and I was trying to find you. He found me and started to hurt me, I felt weak in front of him. It was like all my strength was gone, and then you showed up, and saved me. Please help me." She explained in a sad and tearful voice.

"Don't worry I'm here now, you're safe. I won't let anything happen to an innocent as long I can protect them." Preston said in a proud and charismatic tone.

"Please be my ashikabi!" she shouted as she took Preston by complete surprise, wrapped her arms around his torso, and kissed him on the lips. A pair of golden, hawk-like wings of light, burst from her back. "I am Yashima sekirei No. 84. By the hammer of my pledge! Shatter the enemies of my ashikabi!"

She let go after the wings faded, and Preston put a hand to his forehead. Sarge was so angry the first time with Akitsu, this would make things so much worse. If Sarge didn't have a stroke this time it'd be a miracle.

30 MINUTES EARLIER

Sweetwater woke up right after Preston had left, he saw a note that was next to Akitsu. Sweetwater picked it up, put on his glasses and read it. Preston's note was meant for everyone in the room, he had gone out for a jog and would be back later. Anyone who read the note was tasked with telling everyone else about it. Sweetwater decided to pin it to the board they put up last night so it would be visible to everyone in the room.

He wondered briefly why Preston hadn't done that instead, but he figured that Preston simply forgot it was there. Sweetwater then got up and put on his Nano-Suit, Sarge had given them all the code in case of emergency. They all knew better than to abuse the suits, except for Haggard who played with it, using the excuse of stress testing. Sweetwater walked to the kitchen and found Miya, who was making breakfast.

She asked Sweetwater if he could help with the cooking and he agreed. The two of them finished quickly, with Sweetwater using the suit's enhanced speed and agility to avoid several mishaps, and speed up the process. 5 minutes later breakfast was ready and Sweetwater had something to eat, Miya asked him to go and wake everyone else. He did, and then he told them all he was going out, to get some more parts to tinker with. Everyone except for Akitsu, told him to be careful out in the city with his suit. Sweetwater thanked them and set out on his errand.

Sweetwater happily walked along the street heading east, without a care in the world. He whistled the Andy Griffith show theme to himself as he strolled. He noticed a scream and saw a girl being held prisoner by a group of girls, with a man in a business suit standing next to them. Sweetwater got a look at the girl, and she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She had short gray hair and red glasses, along with some other more desirable assets.

(Play the song: Battlefield 4 theme)

The man in the business suit, kneeled down and was about to kiss the girl. Sweetwater knew what was going to happen from what Preston had told him about his rescue of Akitsu. Sweetwater felt a connection to the girl and knew on instinct, that if he didn't act he'd lose the love of his life. Sweetwater kicked on the suit's speed enhancement, and time seemed to slow down as Sweetwater moved faster than the speed of sound.

Everything happened in slow motion as Sweetwater ran, and reached the girl in a blur of pure unrestrained speed. The group who held her prisoner, slowly went wide eyed, as Sweetwater picked up the girl, punched a sword wielder in the stomach, and dodged the retaliation almost effortlessly. The girl looked at him in fascination and wonder, was this the one of the soldiers who stood against the disciplinary squad and lived?

Sweetwater shot a quick glance at her, and took off with her in his arms, bridal style. She held on as he ran at an almost breakneck pace, dodging and avoiding the retaliations left and right. Sweetwater knew this was too much for him alone and the suit's battery was almost at its recharge point. He stomped the ground and knocked his opponents to the floor.

Using the diversion, he ran back to Maison Izumo with what little suit power remained, before the enhancement would shut down for the suit to recharge. He was within a block of the building before the suit's power ran out, and he skidded to a stop. The girl was amazed at her hero's speed, she smiled and blushed as he opened his visor to reveal an American man, with a mustache and goatee, in his early 20's. At that moment, a certain evil corporate heir, had just learned of his latest setback. A loss to a certain corporate rival's creations no less. 'Hargreave, your Nano-Suits are becoming a bother.' He thought to himself.

"Are you alright miss? Those people were real jerks for trying to do that to you. I'm Sweetwater, Terrance Sweetwater." He said to her with his thick Jersey accent evident in his speaking of the Japanese language.

"I'm Kocho, sekirei No.22. you saved me Mr. Sweetwater, thank you. Are you one of the soldiers of the north? If you are, please help me. Those people wanted me for a nefarious purpose, whatever it was I don't want to be their pawn. Please I'm begging you, I don't want to be a slave." She hugged him tightly as she cried and sobbed.

"Whoa calm down there. I promise as long as I'm around, nobody's going to try that shit again. Otherwise, I'll fucking teach them a lesson that'll hurt like a bitch for years to come." He said trying to soothe the sobbing girl he held in his arms. She started to cease her crying and smiled with teary eyes at the kindness of the man who she held onto. She felt her heart beat faster and knew she found the man she was truly meant for.

"Hey are you…?" He was about to say something but she reached up to his face and kissed him. Sweetwater was in true bliss, as he was kissed, by a girl he barely knew, who he felt like he was truly meant to be with. 'Sorry miss July, but this girl beat you to it. She's my Mary jane and I am the ultimate Spider-man!' He thought to himself proudly. Baby blue, dove like wings burst from Kocho's back, as she cried out in pleasure.

'Screw Sarge, no matter how pissed he'll be, I love this girl.' Sweetwater thought to himself even prouder than before.

"I am Kocho sekirei No.22. By the wisdom of my pledge. May my knowledge defeat my ashikabi's foes." She proclaimed happily. Sweetwater put Kocho down, and the two of them walked to the house holding hands. Sweetwater was the happiest he'd ever been, even happier than when they almost escaped with the gold back in Sadiz. Sweetwater had just found the girl of his dreams, if he believed in god then he'd be thanking him right now. He did believe in karma though, and he guessed this was his reward for all of his acts of heroism alongside the rest of boys. For Sweetwater and Kocho, love was in the air.

BACK AT MAISON IZUMO-A FEW MINUTES LATER

Preston and Sweetwater returned with their team's newest additions. The two of them were at the door and wondering what they were going to tell the others about the new sekirei they brought home. They decided to suck it up, and tell Miya what they could. Preston knew Akitsu wouldn't be happy about this one bit, but she wasn't cold hearted enough to do anything violent, he hoped. Sweetwater would tell Miya that Kocho is a girlfriend he had, and she was in trouble. As for Sarge, that would be slightly easier to explain. After speaking with Miya, the two couples made their way to Bad Company's room.

Sarge was actually calm about the whole thing, they were already a part of the game and had no choice but to participate anyway. Akitsu narrowed her eyes at Preston and Yashima, she decided to forgive Preston. She approached Yashima with her eyes narrowed and looked down on her.

The manner in which she did it practically screamed 'He's mine, I am the matriarch! understand?!'. Yashima shivered in fear at the legendary Akitsu and nodded. Preston sighed and sat down at the computer, gripping the bridge of his nose. Haggard's mouth was wide open with his jaw dropped. His best friends had come back with two more girls. He was already envious of Marlowe, now Sweetwater too, poor me he thought to himself. They all settled in together, and Yashima put her hammer in a corner of the room. Preston received a call on his radio again this time it wasn't who he thought it would be.

"Is this Private Marlowe I'm speaking to? This is Jack Hargreave, it's a pleasure to speak with a decorated war hero like yourself son. It would seem you've been causing my corporate rivals quite a bit of trouble in the last few days. I applaud you for that, Mr. Higa has just lost a valuable asset to your team. I am truly enjoying watching him squirm. From my scans through your suit's helmet camera and visor, it would seem you're going to be a father to beautiful baby girl in the next 5 months, congratulations are in order."

"For providing me with this small amount of entertainment, and I have no doubt that you wish to marry the mother of your child, I think you'll find a small gift as a token of appreciation and an early wedding present nearby. If Mr. Hiroto is listening to this, I am enjoying the way these brave soldiers are using my suits in beating you at your own game. If you're wondering how I know, and why so soon, it's thanks to your wife's unique genetics and your time spent within the Nano-Suit. Goodbye Mr. Marlowe and take good care of your unit, your family, and my suits." Hargreave said calmly, wishing Marlowe his best regards before cutting the transmission.

A delivery truck pulled up outside and the team went down to investigate. The delivery man hopped out, ran around the back of the truck and used a winch to haul out the package. He asked Mr. Marlowe to sign for the delivery. Marlowe signed it, and the man loaded the package on to a dolly, wheeled it to the front door, jumped back in his truck and drove off. The rest of tenants came out to observe what had just been delivered From a Jacob Hargreave, to a Mr. Preston and Mrs. Akitsu Marlowe.

Sarge raised an eyebrow, and Preston admitted to his indiscretion, again. The boys high-fived, and Akitsu blushed bright red at the thought of marrying her handsome knight, and the thought of bearing a child. They opened the large package to reveal a crib and several supplies for a child, along with 2 briefcases full of gold.

Everyone was amazed at the gift the newly dubbed Marlowe clan, had received from their mysterious benefactor. Haggard and Sweetwater were ecstatic at the idea that they'd be uncles, Sarge was in a good mood from that news too. The girls were all happy to know there'd be a baby crawling around soon enough. The proud Mother and Father kissed, looking forward to a bright future together. The two of them settled on the name of Makoto for their soon to be daughter.

MBI TOWER-MINAKA'S OFFICE

Minaka's eye twitched from how annoyed he was by Hargreave's direct intervention and outright insult towards him. The far east is MBI territory, whereas the west is under Hargreave's watch. His corporate rival was a wise old man to be sure, and he played politics like a master violinist. The two of them had butted heads for a long time ever since MBI rose to power.

Hargreave-Rasch Biomedical and its subdivision CRYNET, were able to challenge MBI thanks to extremely successful and lucrative US GOVT defense contracts, and supplying many hospitals in North America and Western Europe. It would seem their corporate chess game had finally found its way to Shinto-teito as well. Minaka simply grinned and faced the window of his office deep in thought. 'Well played old man, now I believe it is my move to make.'

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: looks like the corporate rivals are all butting heads behind the scenes. I came up with the name Makoto for Marlowe and Akitsu's daughter, it seemed like a good mix between their names. Also junichi got what he deserved big time, a swift ass kicking.


	8. Hardcore Haggard

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 8: Hardcore Haggard

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

THAT NIGHT OUTSIDE MAISON IZUMO

Kagari walked outside in his work attire, and climbed into a limo that had pulled up. Kagari got in and she spoke with Takami giving a report of what went on the previous night. She asked about the status of 108. Kagari told her she was fine but worn out from last night, Takami asked about the soldiers. Kagari told her that two of them had gained sekirei today, and they received a present from MBI's chief rival from the west.

Kagari asked if she wanted to know about 108's ashikabi and, Takami retorted that she already knew more than enough. Meanwhile in a small hidden computer room, some certain glasses wearing girl was busy researching the identity of the ashikabi of Kusano and Musubi. She was confused by what she saw, he was a loser by almost all accounts, except for his amazing American friends. She was utterly fascinated by the guy, and couldn't take her eyes off of him.

In Bad Company's room, the two ashikabis were on cloud nine. One was enjoying two women sleeping with him, in the same bedroll, and the other was enjoying the soft comfort of the love of his life, for the first time. Haggard was up late playing games as usual, Sarge told him to turn it off, he did and went to bed. They had worked hard that day organizing and storing the baby supplies and deciding with much deliberation. That the Marlowe clan deserved 75% of the loot from their care package. The rest would be handsomely paid after the job was done anyway. Besides they were all a family, and that's what family does.

Before that Sarge was playing with Kusano and she called him grandpa. He decided that was alright, since he'd be there for a while and he'd treat the darling little girl like she was one of his own. Haggard had been busy that day, trying to find out why he felt like he was constantly being watched, when he thought he was alone. A certain girl in a hidden computer room, was responsible for that.

She was a little annoyed at Haggard's game of search and expose. So, he'd end up with bruises and whatnot from 'accidents' that occurred constantly. He didn't mind after his curiosity was satisfied that it was just paranoia. Then he got online and faced off against a mysterious girl gamer who seemed to be able to rival his Battlefield 4 skills on pc. Haggard and his arch rival squared off and actually became friends, ironically the two of them were unwittingly in the same house, yet earlier they had a war of wits.

THE NEXT MORNING

Sarge rolled out of bed and joined the rest of the guys in the morning routine. He felt like things were looking up, since none of the boys had done or said anything stupid for 5 minutes. Sarge broke into a fake 'Irish' accent and said "It's going to be a great day!". Around the house, good things seemed to happen, everyone was finding joy in the little things and instead of being grumpy Sarge was happy. He remembered that haggard had promised to take him fishing later at a creek that had fish. That made his day all that much sweeter, he made it to the living room and spoke with Kusano, who was being comforted already by Minato.

She was crying about her plants being killed a friend she had. Shiina, was his name, Sarge didn't know who this kid was but for making his surrogate grandchild cry he'd get an ass whooping (not literally). Sarge had experience with children, as did most of bad company, heck one of them was expecting soon, so he helped Minato calm Kusano down. They explained that they're family and they'll always be there for each other.

Kusano smiled and hugged her ashikabi and adoptive grandpa. Minato went to work, and Sarge joined Uzume and Kusano in watching Musubi and Miya spar. The little girl didn't like it but she kept watching anyway, this puzzled Sarge as to why she kept watching if it upset her. Uzume only smiled at Kusano's strange mix of enjoying and hating of the sparring match. Sarge went to check on the boys and their girls, after he let Kusano bounce on his knee like a grandparent would.

Sarge had grown to really care for that little girl, he'd skin alive anyone who wants to hurt her. The old soldier walked the halls of Maison Izumo remembering how far he'd come. He started out the regular army and then he transferred to bad company and saved the world, now he was in japan on a top-secret mission, that ended up with him in the middle of a game that involved the lives of his squad, and their newfound loved ones. Destiny's a bitch like that isn't it.

Sweetwater and Kocho were testing her ability to influence technology, by looking at the suit's functions, through the use of her technopathic ability. Surprisingly she could communicate with the suit rather well. The suit was like a living being, it was talking back whenever she interacted with the programming while roaming around inside of its memory banks. Haggard sat in the corner, playing his new guitar. He was strumming god's gonna cut you down by Johnny cash. Yashima and Akitsu listened intently to his skills at playing the instrument. Preston was playing Battlefield 4 online, his skills at playing video games hadn't gotten rusty at all.

When Sarge entered the room, he let haggard finish his song for the girls, and then it would be time to go fishing. The team all finished what they were doing and went to go fishing for the day. They put on their suits, grabbed their guns and fishing gear, and left for a few hours to enjoy life. Sarge finally got his fishing trip for once. The boys all enjoyed themselves and had some beer to drink. The best day Sarge has had so far. Little did he know that nearby, a certain pink-ette was watching them, gathering intelligence. She also had an ulterior motive, her crush on the one they called Marlowe.

She deemed him worthy of being her ashikabi. She also knew she'd have a power struggle against Akitsu, which actually enticed her desire. She liked the disciplinary squad, but she knew she had to have an ashikabi eventually, and he was not stupid like most other people she found herself surrounded by. She didn't like the idea that eventually, she may be winged by Natsuo who is in fact gay. You can't make the blind see after all. If the other members wanted to be stuck with someone they had no feelings for, it was fine by her standards. She wanted someone who could understand her, someone who would care.

Marlowe had a feeling like they were being watched, he shrugged it off. The four soldiers enjoyed the trip and then went home for the day. Benitsubasa returned to her suite at MBI, and kept thinking to herself how she'd catch the eye of the man who out powered Karasuba. He was surrounded by idiots to be sure, but he seemed like someone who she could get under her thumb without much effort and some planning. Karasuba approached her when she reached the suite of the disciplinary squad. Her superior informed her that their suits were ready for testing. The two of them met up with Haihane and went to the engineering lab where their suits were being stored. Benitsubasa would have her wish soon.

The women put on the lethal suits of destruction, and felt a huge rush of pleasure from their newfound power increase. Karasuba picked up her blade and cleanly sliced through a solid 3-foot-thick block of concrete. Benitsubasa ground a large pile of cinder block to bits and Haihane sliced through 2 feet thick steel plates. MBI's enforcers were ready to tear apart the would-be heroes they failed to kill before. Karasuba enjoyed the rush her suit gave her, it was like she had become a god of death. She enjoyed killing soldiers, now she'd love to slay super-soldiers. Benitsubasa felt like she could take on the world alone in her suit and Haihane laughed in a sinister manner. Vengeance was coming and hell followed it.

BACK WITH THE BOYS

Haggard's Spidey-senses tingled, like something bad was coming. Sarge said it was probably right, they all agreed that a shiver went down their spines at that moment. Something evil was coming but what? The four of them made their way home and ran into Minato, they asked how his day went and he said it was fine. When they got back the last thing they expected, was to see Seio from the other day here at Maison Izumo. Minato tripped over himself in embarrassment and the other guys felt they finally had another ally with them to stay afloat through all the estrogen. The boys warmed up to Seio pretty quick and it seemed almost like they were old friends from the way they talked with each other.

Miya explained that Seio was a friend of her late husband and Seio was like family. Miya explained her view of Seio that he was okay, but a mooch and gave him her version of an evil eye. Seio asked if she noticed how scary she was at times. Minato asked him how he knew where he lived, and Seio said it was because of the cooking. Seio asked how Kusano was doing and Minato said she was okay. Kusano showed up and shyly stood behind the door.

Seio asked her politely if she wanted to say hi. He began to insist, and then he threatened her, which made her cry. Miya threw a bucket at him, and Sarge hit him upside the head. Miya and Sarge glared at him. Seio apologized out of the fear of death. The twins showed up and asked if Seio was there and mooching off of them. He walked up behind the others carrying two large bags, and the twins started to beat him up for being a leech. Minato thanked him for the support from the other day, the boys agreed and gave him two-finger salutes. Seio said it was cool, he handed Minato a business card. Minato was shocked, that Seio charges to solve problems. Seio said they get the friend discount. All the guys just sweat-dropped at Seio's sense of capitalism.

Later, Musubi and Uzume were in talking in the bathroom, and Marlowe was passing the door. He overheard their conversation, he wondered about what Uzume said about her ashikabi being unable to be with her. He figured with her personality, nothing should stop her from being with the person she cares about. Marlowe knew that if something was keeping Uzume from her loved one it was serious. He'd tell the boys about this, and maybe he'd have to ask a certain benefactor for aid if it was absolutely necessary. Hargreave is a businessman at his core, not an altruist by any means as far he knew it. If Marlowe asked for help from him, it would no doubt come with a very steep price. But it was for a friend, whom he considered family. In the end family is what mattered most. At that moment he remembered his own, and went off to find Akitsu. The room was probably his best guess at that point.

12:00 AM

Kusano needed to use the toilet, so she got up and used it. Then a shadowy figure appeared behind her. The little girl was frightened by this figure, whose large eyeglasses glinted ominously. Kusano ran to Minato like she had just seen the boogeyman. Minato comforted her and asked what was wrong, she told him she saw a ghost. The next morning Kusano was switching between hugging her ashikabi Minato and grandpa Sarge. The tenants sat at the breakfast table discussing what she saw.

Last night after Kusano had woken them up, Musubi and Minato woke up Sarge, who assisted them in calming Kusano and hunting a possible burglar. Sarge grabbed his pistol and loaded standard rounds for the occasion. They didn't find anyone or anything suspicious at all. Sarge figured Kusano had just seen the boogeyman. And he tucked her in with Musubi and Minato, after singing her a lullaby he used for his cousin's daughter back home. Musubi and Minato thought that was sweet of the grizzled old soldier.

"Aww Sarge, I didn't know you cared." Haggard said mocking his superior.

"Yeah, I never knew you could be such a sweet old grandpa." Sweetwater said siding with Haggs.

"If you two don't shut up, I'll knock both of you into next Tuesday. Or better yet, I'll get Akitsu to school you again." Sarge said with a vein sticking out on his forehead while he cracked his knuckles menacingly. His two ass pains froze, and backed off at the thought of a beating, and Preston's very scary wife. Kusano smiled at her grandpa and he smiled back. He let her sit on his knee.

"Only this little lady right here gets to call me that. Got it knuckleheads?!" Sarge said pointing to the adorable kid bouncing on his knee. Haggard and Sweetwater nodded vigorously.

Kusano gave them her description of what scared her, a woman with long hair and glasses. Uzume started to say that the ghost sounded familiar but Miya stopped her and gave her the evil eye. Uzume then said it her mistake nothing familiar at all. The boys were suspicious of this but kept it to themselves. Miya then told them she was going to visit her husband's grave and it was the anniversary of his death. The boys lowered their heads in respect. Miya left and all the girls decided to cook.

Haggard had a few dirty thoughts of what Uzume would wear, that were coupled with his thoughts of what they'd cook. Sweetwater only thought of the food since he had Kocho. The same went for Marlowe and his two women. Just then a phantom-like shadow moved out of sight behind all the guys. They felt the ominous presence in the air and wondered what it was.

They put it out of their minds, and went up to see Uzume and the girls about what they'd make. Only to find them all in sexy outfits, and a cute little costume for Kusano. The guys were all feeling something when they took a really good look. Uzume, decided to take a nap which disappointed Haggard, he wanted to see his dirty thoughts be more than that. The rest of the guys, except for Minato, patted him on the back in brotherhood.

The boys all sat at the table and waited for the food. It was all piled high, the guys and gals ate like there was no tomorrow. Haggs proposed a belch off and sweets seconded that notion. Until the girls all vetoed it, with Akitsu giving the guys her scary cold glare. In a hidden nearby computer room, the glasses wearing girl was watching Minato intently. She was drawn to him for some reason, but couldn't figure out why.

SOMEWHERE IN THE CITY

Somewhere out in the city near a train station, Miya was on her way back to Maison Izumo while Minato's sister ran into a boy, who she liked instantly, after she took a good look at him. It turns out the boy was being chased by a rather unfriendly sekirei who was working a very greedy ashikabi. She rudely asked the boy to go with her. He refused, he'd never go with her after what her ashikabi tried to do to Kusano. The sekirei attacked with her whip and Yukari pushed the boy out of the way and promised to keep him safe. She had a shouting match with the hostile sekirei and the boy felt attracted to her for saving him. They ran and the sekirei chased after them.

BACK AT MAISON IZUMO

Musubi and Minato discussed what happened the other day, when Yomi the scythe sekirei was taken away by MBI after Musubi defeated her. Sekirei who lose their symbols can't stay with their ashikabi. Minato was shocked by this, but he remembered sekireis don't have a choice when it comes to the rules of the game. Sweetwater was listening, in on them. He heard everything as Minato put the pieces together. When the game is over it all goes away. Sweetwater knew what he meant by this and found it to be total bullshit. He had a best friend who would have a daughter very soon, that friend would lose his whole family when the game ends. He'd been to Vegas before, the house doesn't always have to win. He heard how much Musubi cared for Minato and she wanted to be the one who wins so they'll never be separated.

Musubi pointed out that the ashikabi with the flock that wins the game gets to keep their sekireis. Sweetwater knew what she meant, and he would warn the guys and their gals about the whole thing once he had the basics of a plan. He felt it was time to plan a third way, not everyone wins, but the house still loses instead, shooting their way out would be a very fun, very righteous, last resort.

Meanwhile the girl with glasses was watching Minato and Musubi, she felt upset about Minato and Musubi's relationship. Every time the two of them had a moment it annoyed her. She felt her symbol pulse at the thought of Minato. She was jealous of Musubi having Minato instead of her, at that moment she marked Musubi as a personal enemy. Haggard was working on a little side project of his own, making a moonshine still. He had all the available household chemicals for his needs. He also had the most necessary thing, Miya's permission.

He figured he'd step away from it for a little while, and found just the distraction. Musubi, asked Haggard to go with her to the store since everyone else was busy. Haggard wasn't doing much so, he put on his suit, agreed to go with her, and help her carry the very large amount of groceries. The gold the boys were using to pay their rent, helped Miya purchase a lot more things she needed/wanted for Maison Izumo.

They wondered how she'd exchange it money but she simply told them she had her ways. The two of them left the building and set off for the store while roughly 22000 miles above them, an MBI satellite began to ominously blink red instead of blue. They had left the store and Haggard's Spidey sense tingled. He jumped right and pushed musubi out of the way, as a laser came from orbit, and left a sizable crater in the street. She thanked Haggard and the two of them began to dodge the lasers while double timing it to Maison Izumo.

"Damn it, this is literally the last thing I'd expect to happen to me ever! I mean seriously, who uses god damn outer space lasers?! I Mean I've seen some crazy stuff in my time, but this is really damn crazy?! I'd be happy right now from the explosions, if they weren't aimed at me!" Haggard ranted as he and Musubi ran as fast as their abilities allowed.

Haggard and Musubi dodged left and right avoiding any of the shots that rained down on them. Musubi tripped and Haggard caught her, he began look for a way out of their situation. He wanted to put out an emergency evac call to the guys, but his com-link was being jammed. He kept screaming in his head, why was this happening to him of all people? Back at Maison Izumo, Minato was having a close encounter of the really pretty/awkward kind. And Yukari was falling in love with the boy she saved.

CLIFFHANGER

-END CHAPTER-


	9. Girl Troubles

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 9: Girl Troubles

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

Musubi and Haggard had just finished their bid for survival against an orbital barrage. Haggard was having mixed feelings about his latest escapade. "Miya, you will not believe what just happened to us!"

"What happened to you Haggard?" Miya asked incredulously.

"Musubi and I, were on our merry way back here when a damn laser shot at us from space!" Haggard said incredulously.

"A laser? What in the world…? Are you sure it was from space?" Miya said with look of confusion.

Haggard face vaulted. "Miya, I couldn't make this up if I tried. I'd be cursing a lot more right now, but I won't do it in front of Kusano." Haggard said gesturing to the cute little kid.

"Whatever it was, the good news is at least we managed to get the groceries. Despite how dangerous it was, that was kind of fun." Musubi said with a smile on her face.

"I don't disagree with you there Musubi. But it's not something I want to ever do again, ever." Haggard said calming down and sighing.

"You two have had a rough time. Take the groceries to the kitchen, and then go change and relax." Miya said to the battered duo. Recently, thanks to Minato, the boys had online ordered some Vietnam war era US fatigues, boots, and patrol caps, to wear casually. Modern gear was too conspicuous, and hard to come by in a fitting size, or style the boys liked. Just then Sweetwater showed up with a hurried look on his face.

"Hey Haggard, I got something important to tell you!"

"Well what, I'm busy right now sweets!"

"I need you to finish up what you're doing, and then come with me to find the rest of the guys."

"Why, what's so important egghead?"

"Finish what you're doing, help me, and then we'll talk redneck."

"Fine, I'm almost done pulling out the rest of this stuff anyways. Can you finish this Musubi?"

"Sure George-san."

"Just call me Haggard or Haggs little lady." Haggard finished the conversation, and he and Sweetwater went to find the rest of Bad Company. A few minutes later they heard a commotion upstairs.

"Sweets, was that a net gun discharge I just heard?"

"Haggard I do believe it was. Why do you ask?"

"Shouldn't we do something?"

"Maybe, let's go check it out just in case."

"Good call, I wonder who in the hell has a net gun around here?"

"No idea Haggs but I think we'll find out."

The two of them proceeded to where they heard the noise, and ran into the rest of bad company, who were also going to investigate the weapon discharge. They found Miya holding a sword to the back of a girl with long braided, red locks of hair and large eyeglasses, among other assets a man would find enjoyable. The girl was attempting to have some R rated fun with Minato, Miya reminded her that illicit sexual actions are forbidden within Maison Izumo's walls.

A few minutes later everyone had gathered in the dining room, and were speaking with the secret tenant of Maison Izumo. They went upstairs and revealed a secret room. Haggard made the connection, she was his Battlefield rival, and the one who'd caused him misery over the past few days. Miya revealed that Matsu had been in hiding after she fled from MBI. Miya then explained that since her husband also used to work for MBI, that was how they came to be acquainted with Matsu. Matsu apologized to everyone and went back to her room.

"Hey Matsu!" Haggard said in a raised voice.

"Yes Haggard?" she replied

"Let's go head to head again online sometime!" Haggard loudly suggested.

"You're on cowboy!" Matsu declared as she shut her secret door.

On that note, the boys of bad company gathered around in their room and discussed the latest info on their situation.

"Here's all the info we have laid out." Sweetwater said as he showed the guys his recently compiled dossier."

"This is fucked up, if we don't beat the house…" Marlowe said afraid for his family and team members.

"We lose the pot, and all the chips to boot." Sarge said solemnly.

"There has to be a way out of this?!" Haggard said angrily.

"I've been running the numbers so far and, I'm putting together three options. They're only in the alpha so far but I'll tell you what I've got. Operation: Live Free, Operation: Endgame and lastly, Operation: Die Hard." Sweetwater said putting his best ideas forward.

"Well anything solid, or are they just titles?" Sarge said quizzically.

"Operation: Live Free, so far it involves us shooting our way out, getting ourselves, and our fellow tenants out of the city, and crippling MBI. If we cripple MBI, we can go home and say we did our jobs to general Braidwood, and bring our civilian entourage with us home to the US. That's if we can do it all and then some. But that's the easiest, providing we can turn our backs on everyone else here in this stupid game." Sweetwater said coolly.

"What's next, I like the sound of Operation: Die Hard." Haggard said enthusiastically.

"Hold on Haggs old buddy, I'll get to that. Next, we have Operation: Endgame. This one consists of us asking other, greedier ashikabi's, to help us distract MBI while others, who are less interested in this fucked up game, can leave with us and escape to the US seeking asylum from MBI. That means we'll have to shake hands with the devil, a lot. They'll see this as an upside, fewer contestants, less effort and bigger cut of the loot. Of course, there are other ashikabis who will need some more incentive, like Higa Izumi and Hayato Mikogami. Those two already have money and power, from my best guess, Higa wants MBI for himself, so more power. If we're out of the picture, he has less competition. He's not a sucker though, in fact he's a really sinister bastard, and he will want something else to squeeze out of us, what that will be, I don't really know. As for Hayato Mikogami, he's just greedy and unpredictable, I can't really say if we could convince him to help us if we tried."

"I'm pretty sure this Higa guy will definitely want something extra, considering the fact that you snatched Kocho right out of his hands. Plus, I saved Akitsu from Mikogami." Preston added cynically.

"Yeah, it was a spur of the moment thing, like you and Akitsu. You guys can't fault Me for that, right?" Sweetwater said nervously. Marlowe and the others nodded their heads and Sweetwater relaxed.

"Alright, now what's door number three?" Haggard asked nonchalantly.

"Operation: Die Hard, the name's proof enough that this will be tougher than anything we've ever done before. Taking down Kirilenko was a cakewalk compared to this. This is if we go all in, I'm talking all the marbles, the whole enchilada, the big cheese. If the only way we can end this is bringing down MBI all together, we'd have to attack on three fronts. Getting our friends out of here, hitting MBI tower and reawakening and freeing all the imprisoned sekirei, all at the same time. That's if we don't turn our hearts off and cut our losses. This is the big one, we fail, we lose everything. Pres, Sarge, Haggs, if we do this there's no guarantee any of us will walk out of this alive. We'd have to ask every ashikabi who wants out of this to fight with us, even then there's still no guarantee of victory, and there will be casualties."

"For now, Operation: Die Hard is the name of our game but, let's just hold off on that, and ride this out until we work out some of the kinks. After all, there are still a few un-winged sekirei out there. So, until they all have an ashikabi, or are out of the game, we should keep this to ourselves. Agreed?" Sarge said pragmatically.

"Agreed." They all said nodding their heads in solidarity.

"So, got any first steps at least, you know, to give us a basic idea?" Haggard asked curiously.

"Well since we're going with OP: Die Hard, we'll need either a train, big rig truck, APC or large helicopter. For the first part, that's what we need in case anyone who can't fight needs to leave first so they're out harm's way. Next, when we attack either MBI or where the imprisoned sekirei are, we can use the Humvee, most likely the car will have go out with a bang, we'll need lots of explosives. Which sucks that we lose the vehicle in my opinion, but oh well. After that we can choose to steal a cargo ship or something, anything big enough to house all the freed people. Or we can just leave after we pacify MBI, and let the sekirei figure out what to do for themselves." Sweetwater said coolly.

"That's all well and good but, I have a feeling we'll end up against those three scary bitches from before, and they'll be ready for us this time." Sarge said thinking tactically.

"That's why I made the new rounds, dual purpose. Nonlethal anti-personnel and anti-Nano-suit, I have a good feeling that Hiroto guy put some on those three enforcers of his. These should be enough to bring them down, I hope." Sweetwater said with slight nervousness.

"On the off chance they don't work, what are our odds?" Haggard said with a raised eyebrow.

"A snowball's chance in hell if they have suits." Sweetwater grimaced.

"Well it's the best plan we've got so, when the time comes we'll get to it. Until then, we ride this out like Sarge said." Marlowe explained calmly.

The four of them concluded their meeting and went about their day. Marlowe went out that night to think some more, this sekirei business was spiraling out of control, and his team was at the center of it. the plan seemed like suicide, but he knew the creed they all shared. No one gets left behind. He found Homura engaging another sekirei. This one was using water to douse Homura's flames without even trying. Homura talked with her of ashikabis, Marlowe listened in. He concealed himself using cloak mode, so as to not be discovered, and avoid getting wrapped up in more drama. He heard her intent to kill the man who she was meant for. This rang all kinds of alarm bells in Marlowe's head.

'Note to self, convince her that everyone is different, or avoid at all costs. She wants to kill the person she loves even though she hasn't even met them yet? What is up with this chick, and why does she talk like Shakespeare?' Preston thought to himself about the water sekirei who seemed to overpower Homura.

Preston saw that the two sekireis seemed to have known each other for quite some time, the two of them talked, and stopped their quarrel. Preston relaxed and silently breathed a sigh of relief. But the ledge he was standing crumbled slightly and the water sekirei caught on to his position. Marlowe panicked and turned tail to run, they water sekirei was hot on his trail. Even though she couldn't see him, the noise he made from sprinting was loud enough to pursue.

Marlowe's cloak ran out, he found a shed to hide in, and laid down in the dirt. He didn't dare make a sound as he heard high heeled boot clicks outside. When the footsteps had stopped, he waited for another 5 minutes, the door opened and he froze. There standing in front of him was his pursuer, Tsukiumi as she had been called by Homura.

She inspected the shed and saw no trace of her quarry. She looked around and thoroughly inspected the small room with a furious eye. She just barely glanced over Preston, and he sweated nervously. He was laying right under her, between her legs, and looking up. Thoughts of fear were mixed with perversion, if he died, it'd be one hell of a way to go. She finally gave up and slammed the shed door shut as she walked away. When she was really gone, Preston let out a loud sigh of relief. He cheated death once again.

Marlowe returned to Maison Izumo and slept like a log with his two sekireis by his side. The next morning, everyone was enjoying the new company at the breakfast table. Matsu was not exactly used to it since she had been eating in secret for so long. But she was happy to be doing it after a while. Haggard and Minato noticed Uzume's absence, Haggard decided that he'd go looking for Uzume after breakfast under the pretense of exercise. He left after he was done eating, he said he needed time to think. Haggard went out and used the suit's abilities to track down his crush.

She moved sporadically, and seemed to leave confusing clues as to her next position. Haggard was an experienced hunter, he understood smart prey cover their tracks. He found the devil in the details at every location one by one, tracking Uzume until he found himself at a hospital. He saw Uzume enter it, and decided to see why she was doing this and not telling anybody. He used his suit's tactical view mode to observe from a safe distance across the street. He saw Uzume talking to a girl in the hospital bed.

He used the suit's enhanced sensors to pick up on their conversation and found out she was Uzume's ashikabi. A tear came to Haggard's eye, at both the loss of his crush, and the reason her ashikabi was in the hospital. He noted the name of the hospital, and decided that if he can't have her, he can at least make her happy. The hospital's name rang a bell in his head, he decided to tell the guys and ask Sweetwater what was so strange about that hospital. When he got back he called a team meeting.

"Alright Haggs, what's the big deal? Come on now, don't make us wait." Sarge asked haggard impatiently

"Guys, it's about Uzume. Her ashikabi I found out why we don't see her at all." Haggard said with a heavy heart.

"Don't keep us in suspense, why?" Sweetwater said annoyed.

"Guys, let him talk." Marlowe said in a calm and firm tone.

(Play the song: Battlefield 1 Main Theme)

"Thanks Pres, the reason is because her ashikabi is sick with a terminal disease. The medicine she's taking is slowing it down but she's dying." Haggard said sadly.

"Oh Haggard, sorry buddy. Wait a minute, Sweetwater!" Preston patted Haggard on the back, then he perked up with an idea.

"Yeah preston, what?" Sweetwater said curiously.

"The suits! We can use the suits, right? Like what I did for Akitsu, do you think with Kocho's help, and you doing your thing, we can save her?" Preston said with a gleam of hope coming to the team.

"It's possible Preston, but we need to ask Uzume if she even wants our help." Sweetwater reminded them.

"Wait Sweets, can you check who runs the hospital? I got a feeling it's a certain scumbag we know." Haggard said with a hint of suspicion.

"Already on it, looks like you were right Haggard. The place is run by that corporate douchebag, Higa Izumi." Sweetwater said angrily.

"That sick bastard! Sweets, can it be done?" Marlowe said with determination.

"Screw him, he's already crossed the line more than enough times to warrant revenge. We don't need him for Operation: Die Hard anyway. Guys we can and will do this, there's no guarantee. But we'll do this for Uzume!" Sweetwater said proudly.

"For Uzume! Hooah!" The boys all shouted together. The boys then went to find Kocho and asked her if she had advanced her powers as a Brain type sekirei. She confirmed their hopes, and they planned to help Uzume and save her ashikabi. Bad Company was not going to let this shit stand, if Higa was going to play dirty, he shouldn't have played against Bad Company.

The boys all had their Ideas for how to beat the living tar out of their opponent. But for now, this will be a rescue mission, and no one gets left behind. They steeled themselves for their mission to save a friend, these are the moments that define them, true heroes. A bright shining force for innocents in the dark, average joes with guns and a sense of total righteousness.

Then Minato walked in on them, and asked if they could help him out with a girl problem.

"What were you guys talking about?" Minato asked curiously.

"Nothing!" Bad Company said in unison.

"O-okay, could you guys help me out with something?" Minato asked with a nervous look.

"Sure kid, what do you need?" Sarge replied nonchalantly.

"I've got some girl trouble, big time. A sekirei that's reacting to me, wants to kill me. Matsu and I figured you guys could help me talk to her, and try to convince her not to kill me." Minato explained, relaxing slightly.

"We're in kid, whatever you need, we're with you." Sarge stated proudly.

"You guys are the best!" Minato said with a sigh of relief.

THE NEXT MORNING-CITY STREETS

Minato and Kusano were walking down the street, Kusano was holding a little potted plant in her hands. The guys were nearby, cruising along in the Humvee, keeping an eye on Minato. Matsu was providing logistical support from Maison Izumo through the use of a scrambled frequency. Haggard was enjoying a piece of beef jerky that was imported from the US.

Minato ran into Seio, he'd been chasing a cat for his client and was happy that Minato and Kusano helped catch the cat. From out of nowhere, Seio sekireis the twins, fell from the sky. Their pursuer was none other than Tsukiumi. After landing on top of Minato, she reacted, realized who he was and threatened to kill him. The boys rolled up, hopped out and pointed their guns at her. It was an epic standoff.

-END CHAPTER-


	10. Setting Goals

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 10: Setting Goals

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

ON THE STREET

"Stand down or get dropped!" Sarge shouted at the top of his lungs.

"Put the water down, and leave our friend alone! Now!" Preston Shouted.

"Thou hath brought mercenaries to do thy bidding?! How despicable!" Tsukiumi shouted indignantly.

"We're not mercenaries! We are soldiers! Maybe we're not the best soldiers, but we're definitely not mercenaries!" Sweetwater shouted indignantly.

"Yeah, we hate mercenaries, and you threatened our friend. So, back off and listen to what he has to say Shakespeare, or else!" Haggard shouted angrily.

"Thou cannot order me! If thoust wish is to fight, then thou shall receive one! Water Celebration!" Tsukiumi retorted and launched her attack at the angry troops.

They engaged their maximum armor modes and stood their ground. They didn't have to worry about drowning thanks to their suits' rebreathers. Minato how was flung into an alley, Kusano chased after him. The guys valiantly held their ground, refusing to give in to Tsukiumi's attacks. She launched more vicious waves at them one after another. The suits' energy supplies ran low and they were all flung backwards like ragdolls. Tsukiumi pursued he quarry like a lioness stalks her food.

The boys recovered, and were in hot pursuit to save their friend. Minato took a beating and Kusano shielded him with her plants. Tsukiumi reacted with disgust to Minato's winging of the little girl. She decided to at least hear Minato out, he asked her to be his sekirei. She became enraged at the very thought of him violating her. Her view was that Ashikabis are all disgusting pigs and she outright refused to be his. She was about to strike when the boys charged in, and blocked her strike with their suits' armor modes again.

"We told you to back off, he's not like those scumbags out there! You think we'd save him if he were?! You are a complete idiot if you think he's like them. I for one love my sekireis Akitsu and Yashima!" Preston shouted heroically.

"So, thou art the cold steel ashikabi! Doth thou seek my body for thyself as well?!" Tsukiumi screamed indignantly.

"No, I'm here to protect my friend! The same reason as my squad mates that stand beside me!" Preston proudly replied.

"When we stand united…!" Sarge declared.

"Tyrants and empires fall!" Sweetwater finished.

"Thou think myself a tyrant for defending myself?!" Tsukiumi replied.

"Wrong, you're not defending yourself! You threatened, and came after our friend, you attacked him first, and yet he's never done anything to you! You're afraid of something that isn't true, you don't get that everyone is different!" Preston shouted as he and the guys raised their guns, and rained static hell on Tsukiumi. Seio and the twins joined in the action and used their combined strength. She blocked the fire from bad company and focused on striking down Minato. He kept on trying to convince her to stop and listen to him. Seio and the twins unleashed their ultimate attack, god's song.

It nearly struck Tsukiumi, Minato knocked her out of the way saving her life. She was astonished by this, the man whose life she wished to end, saved her own. Tsukiumi retaliated and sent an attack at the trio, Seio was knocked back into a wall and lost his grip on the cat. He was angered by this and subdued Tsukiumi. He threatened to make her his own sekirei as repayment for the loss of his client's pet. The guys ordered him to back off and hold her until Minato got his point across. Minato agreed and declared he'd fight him for her because she's his sekirei.

He backed off, and then the twins gave him a shock. They were angry beyond belief. He cowered in fear and kept spouting excuses. They fried him good for his unfaithful actions. Tsukiumi had calmed down and the boys lowered their weapons. She approached Minato and asked if he spoke the truth about what he had said. He asked what she meant by that, and she doused him for playing dumb, the guys quietly snickered at both Minato and Seio's predicaments. Tsukiumi thanked him for saving her and was amazed by his courage. She asked for his name and he told her, he confessed that he needed her and that they were meant for each other.

Tsukiumi decided to take Minato's proposal for her to be his sekirei, as a proposal for a formal marriage. He was confused by her statement at first, and then they kissed. Blue wings of light emerged from her back and then slowly faded, as she and Minato concluded the kiss. Minato started to talk to her and she told him to dispense with the formalities as she is now his sekirei/wife. Kusano hugged Minato, and Tsukiumi was slightly annoyed but accepted that since Kusano is only a child, she posed no threat to her status as matriarch. Then Musubi showed up, and Tsukiumi was even more irked by her rival's appearance as a threat to her status as wife/matriarch of Minato's sekirei. She doused Minato once more out of spite, and Haggard broke down laughing, while the rest of the guys face vaulted.

BACK AT MAISON IZUMO-A SHORT TIME LATER

Miya and Kagari had been discussing where Minato, his sekirei and bad company were. Kagari said that Miya sounded like their mother, only to change that statement out of the fear of her wrath. The others returned and Tsukiumi introduced herself as Minato's wife. Minato was flustered by Tsukiumi's bold statement. Kusano was irritated when Tsukiumi gave her explanation that since they are connected she is Minato's wife. Haggard interjected, that by his and god's standards, they're not married until there's a wedding ring on both the husband and wife's fingers. The rest of the guys nodded their heads in agreement. Tsukiumi mused at the thought, if there was a formal ceremony, there would no longer be confusion on the matter.

Tsukiumi had a dislike for most of the soldiers, except for Marlowe. To her, he seemed to be the least rude out of all his colleagues. Kusano went fiery red in annoyance at Tsukiumi, while Musubi got the wrong idea, by taking Tsukiumi's explanation to be fact. While the girls all argued among themselves, the guys went back to their room to discuss the next phase of their operation. Now that they were going to rescue Uzume's ashikabi, and effectively eliminate Higa Izumi as a possible ally, plans needed to be altered. Before they could climb the stairs, two resounding slaps were heard. Miya explained to the two arguing sekirei that violence is not permitted in Maison Izumo. Musubi and Tsukiumi, with lumps on their heads, apologized for their rule breaking.

Minato was about to explain, but Miya replied that she knew it was because of the sekirei plan all along. She gave a glance to the boys, and said that she knew why, and they no longer needed to lie. The reason she knew was because her husband Takehito used to work as a researcher for MBI. The guys were relieved to not have to keep that secret anymore, the jig was up when Kusano was brought to Maison Izumo. On that note, the guys went up to their room and got back to work on the rescue mission. On their way back, they passed Kagari and Matsu who were talking about Kagari emerging in order to help the healing speed up. Kagari noted that it wouldn't matter because of his condition. His only goal remaining goal was to kill Hiroto. Sarge told him to come to their room and talk for a minute before he left to work, it was important. Kagari asked why, and Sarge told him it was about a mutual friend, and refused to say who. Kagari caught his meaning, and agreed to talk after he got dressed.

IN BAD COMPANY'S ROOM

"So, how did you know I was Homura?" Kagari asked in exasperation.

"Night vision, the helmets have it built in." Sweetwater explained.

"That, and the fact that the voice is a friggin match. Sweets compared the recordings or whatever and found a match." Haggard said in his usual slur.

"Yeah and dude, were pretty good with faces. Since we know your secret, we'll tell you one of ours." Sweetwater said coolly.

"We're planning a little barbecue, with MBI roasting on the grill. You want in on the party, or what?" Sarge said comedically.

"The more the merrier." Preston shrugged.

"I'm in, so what are you guys planning up here anyway?" Kagari said coolly.

"Welcome to Operation: Die Hard. It's real top secret, so you can't tell anyone about it. What we plan to do is bring MBI down in one shot. With you on board, things will be a lot easier in the long run. Kocho over there, is already on board to help. But first we have an errand to run." Sarge said firmly.

"Got it, when you guys want to discuss the details, tell me." Kagari stated plainly and left to work.

The guys then worked on the plan ironing out the kinks. Once dinner time rolled around, they went down stairs and joined the discussion. Preston ran into Akitsu and Yashima they sat next to him at the table. The same thing went for Sweetwater and Kocho. Tsukiumi was questioning Minato about his other sekirei and Minato explained with some exasperation. Uzume dropped in and made things slightly worse for poor Minato. The guys seized the opportunity and asked if they could talk to her later about an important matter. She agreed and they'd discuss it after dinner. Once that was over and everyone had gone to tend to their business, Uzume and the guys talked.

(Play the song: Battlefield 1 Main Theme)

"What was it you guys wanted talk to me about?" Uzume asked politely.

"We know about your ashikabi, and we might have a chance of saving her life." Preston said solemnly.

"Sorry to pry into your business but, I followed you and put 2 and 2 together. You're our friend Uzume, and besides we hate that Higa jackass." Haggard said giving a thumbs-up and a smile.

"It's only a chance, but it's better than doing nothing and letting that asshole ruin your life." Sweetwater said shrugging and cracking his knuckles.

"We're going to save your girl Uzume, no one gets left behind on our watch." Sarge said putting a hand on her shoulder.

"You guys really are heroes, thank you so much!" She cried letting tears roll down her cheeks and hugging Haggard.

"Were not angels' little lady, just good guys with guns. That jerk Higa crossed a line when he messed with you. We're going to show him he's not untouchable." Haggard said giving her a pat on the back.

"I can't thank you enough you guys." Uzume said as she dried her eyes.

"Let's get this done ASAP, we can't give Higa time to think about what we're up to. The more time we give him, the better he can plan a scheme against us. Tomorrow morning Uzume, you're with us bright and early." Sarge said pragmatically.

"You got it Sarge." Uzume gave a two-finger salute. She returned to her room, and the guys got ready to go on their rescue mission once again.

MEANWHILE MBI TOWER ROOF

Minaka and Takami were discussing the next phase of the sekirei plan going into motion. After that they reminisced about the past. 1999 The day they discovered the sekirei, when an army stormed the beach only to be eliminated a short time later. The day it all began, when the powers of the 1st disciplinary squad was unleashed. It was a bloody battle; all the troops were slaughtered, the men who never came home. Only one ship managed to send out a burst transmission, before being lost to the deep blue forever. Elsewhere within the building Benitsubasa could feel the sense of longing within her soul, her body heated up at the thought of Preston Marlowe, her soon to be ashikabi, and a slayer of armies. She now had the power to defy Karasuba, and force her will upon the Nano-Suit soldier she had chosen to be hers. Her reaction caused her to seek some private time in her personal bathroom for an hour.

-END CHAPTER-


	11. Hell's Belles

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 11: Hell's Belles

A/N: guess where the name belle comes from. Sorry about the retcon but oh well.

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

'Things have been good so far, we've managed to get our plans together, but things still need a few tune ups here and there. I'm glad Miya decided to let me stay with Akitsu in the same bed, since she is the mother of the newest member of my family. Tsukiumi, the new sekirei Minato picked up, is not exactly someone who's easy to get along with but maybe she'll warm up. There's still that bad feeling too, my gut tells me someone is coming, and not with the best of intentions. I hope it's not the witch I fought at the docks, or else this will be messy.'

Preston rolled his head to the side, opening his eye lids, he glanced at his baby mama, who was still asleep. He smiled when his eyes reached the little bulge growing in her midsection. He carefully eased himself out of the bedroll, avoiding waking both of the women he shared a bed with. The rest of the team was asleep, Preston stepped lightly the wood creaked slightly beneath the weight of his muscular frame. He briefly thought of his coming daughter, he'd shoot on sight anyone who'd try to date her when she grew up. He snatched up his clean exercise gear, and walked outside for another round of morning PT.

He hummed the cadence 'Airborne Ranger where have you been', he ran his daily mile in peace, enjoying the sun of the early morning. He remembered how he and the boys had gone through ranger training before hitting D.C., except for Sarge who'd already done it. The boys were officially rangers, Haggard pissed off the drill sergeant more than once, and Sweetwater was more miserable than ever in those days. Preston did well during those days in the brush of Fort Benning, in Sarge's absence Preston was promoted to squad leader by the drill sergeant. When it was done, they earned the ranger ribbons on their shoulders.

As he ran and remembered the hell he'd been through, a certain armored pinkette and her sharp clawed counterpart, eyed him with interest from a rooftop. Pinky enjoyed watching him unintentionally show off his well-toned military physique, she wanted him badly. Her nether regions felt wet at his presence again, he'd slain an army without quitting, fought impossible odds, and kept on going. She decided that this was her best opportunity, and the two friends jumped down from their perch, landing with a thud in an alley. They engaged their suits' speed enhancement, caught up to Preston, and Benitsubasa grabbed him by the neck with one hand, just shy of a choke hold. A case of girl meets guy, if the girl was a confrontational, punch happy psycho, and the guy was a super soldier, who wasn't particularly super at the moment. Preston knew there wasn't an easy way out of this, so he decided to wing it.

"So…who are you two, and why are you wearing Nano-suits?" Preston asked flatly from his uncomfortable perch.

"I'm Benitsubasa sekirei No. 105, that's my friend Haihane No. 104, and you are going to be my ashikabi. What do you think of my new dress? I think I look good, but that's my opinion soldier boy." She replied curtly.

"If you wanted to talk there are other ways of doing that. But you really didn't have any other option, did you?" Marlowe responded sarcastically.

"This was the most direct, I like to get right to the point. I've been waiting for the right moment to do this for a long time." Benitsubasa said not picking up on his tone.

"Please, PUT, ME, DOWN, NOW." Preston said annoyed with his captor's stubbornness.

"No, kiss first, talk later." She said stubbornly.

The two of them argued for a little while on the subject, then Benitsubasa's arm got tired and she decided to speed things up by just kissing him. She pulled off her helmet to prepare for what would come next. Preston 's guess was correct, it was the pinkette from the docks. She hadn't caused any harm, other fighting with Haggard so she could be forgiven. But her sharp clawed friend on the other hand, is another story altogether. Preston knew this girl wanted him badly, and she wouldn't stop until she gets what she wants. He decided to go with it and see where it went.

Benitsubasa was hot and bothered by the boy she'd picked to be her ashikabi. If he was as caring about his sekirei as the rumors led her to believe, she and Haihane could get their wish for love after all. The idea made her smile in triumph, Haihane 'her friend' had decided to choose one of the soldiers as well, in order to stick with Benitsubasa. Both of them liked their job at MBI, but they did not want to be stuck with natsuo, Karasuba their boss, didn't share her own opinion though. These soldiers had the ability to modify sekirei slightly from the rumors they heard.

If those rumors were true Benitsubasa herself, might get a little change from her emergence caused by the guy she held captive. She grinned and perched her lips for the kiss, Preston closed his eyes and waited for the moment of truth. When the two of them kissed Preston actually enjoyed it despite his position, Benitsubasa French kissed him, she was having fun. Haihane grinned for her friend's success, if it was this easy the other troops didn't stand a chance. Large pink eagle wings of light burst from Benitsubasa's back, and she howled in pleasure at the rush it brought. Her breast size increased to a decent sized b-cup, and her height grew 3 inches, all in thanks to the leftover nanites still in Preston's system.

She could see Marlowe's battles rolling through her mind, like fast paced action movie clips, the thrills, action, and kills exciting her. Preston saw what Benitsubasa was going through in his own head, her and Haihane's desire for love, wanton for destruction, and annoyance at idiocy. He literally had just received a bonding kiss from hell's belle, this time Sarge would definitely be angry. Benitsubasa was an official MBI employee, a member of the disciplinary squad, if she actually liked her job then that might complicate the coming operation.

"Sarge is going to kill me for this." Preston said grimacing at the thought of getting chewed out by Sarge again.

"Why should I care." Benitsubasa said with indifference.

"You can be forgiven, I can see that your friend was just following your witch boss's orders, and you were too. So, now that we're stuck together…I can try to help you patch things up with my squad. But please behave yourselves, okay." Preston said trying to placate his newest sekirei.

"Hmph, I can do whatever I want, when I want, however I want." She said stubbornly sticking her nose in the air.

"If I was wearing my suit this would be a lot different." Preston said annoyed at her stubbornness again.

"Well you aren't, so now let's go get your other buddies. I'm sure Haihane will have fun taking her pick of the litter." She said with a mischievous grin.

With that, she knocked out poor Preston, and proceeded to Maison Izumo with Haihane in tow. Haihane saw the surveillance reports and pictures that Benitsubasa had taken. She chose the nerdy one of the group Private Sweetwater. He seemed to appeal to her personality, plus the nerdy guy just looked cute to her. That Haggard guy seemed too rude for her tastes at all, and the sergeant was a grouchy old man. They walked down the street nonchalantly, and encountered their boss Karasuba. At first, she was annoyed at her subordinates for courting their prey, especially the one she despised most, but relaxed at the idea of having some 'fun' with them.

Minaka had made certain upgrades to the suits, allowing them to form into a small backpack, similar in size and shape to a camelback water container. The girls activated the suits retraction function, and were now in their normal uniforms. Benitsubasa still had Preston slung over her shoulder when they reached Maison Izumo. Musubi was watering the yard with Kusano and she accidently pointed the hose at Karasuba. Her entourage quietly snickered behind her back, Karasuba was annoyed by this, but put on a pleasant expression for Musubi when she recognized her visitors. Musubi greeted Karasuba warmly, and Karasuba returned her sentiment. Musubi was shocked when she saw Preston unconscious on Benitsubasa's shoulder. Benitsubasa handed her unconscious ashikabi to Musubi, and then she took Preston back inside the building.

MEANWHILE IN BAD COMPANY'S ROOM

(Play the song: Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones)

"What's taking Marlowe so long? He's never gone this long without getting back or reporting in." Sarge thought out loud to himself.

"Maybe something happened to him. What am I saying, he can take care of himself, right?" Sweetwater said nervous at Preston's absence.

"Of course, Preston can take care of himself. Remember when he took on the Russians alone to find us, and we didn't even need saving." Haggard added in relaxed factual tone. He was listening to Paint it black by the rolling stones.

Then there was a knock on the door, they opened it to reveal musubi holding a knocked-out Marlowe, and the three scariest women they knew, besides Miya. The tension at the moment was so thick it could be cut with a knife, or in this case a sword. Sarge and Karasuba glared at each other, venom in their eyes. Haihane shot a seductive grin to Sweetwater, who blushed nervously when her eyes met his. Haggard stuck his middle finger up to Benitsubasa, she twitched her eye in suppressed anger. Musubi broke the tension by handing Preston to Sweetwater, as good luck would have it he was the squad's field medic as well tech expert. Karasuba and musubi left to get Karasuba cleaned up, while her cronies decided to stay and break the news to the rest of the soldiers.

Sarge was so angry he wanted to explode, Haggard was ranting furiously, and Sweetwater was still getting hot and heavy looks from Haihane. She managed to sneak up to Sweetwater bit by bit as Benitsubasa argued with Haggard and Sarge, before Sweetwater could react, she kissed him and ash colored wings of light burst from Haihane's back. She hugged Sweetwater tightly while their kiss became even more passionate, it was akin to making out. The three bickering individuals all turned in amazement at what had just transpired. Sarge snapped out of it and separated the kissing soldier and pretty girl.

Akitsu and bad company's other sekireis, walked in on the moment, and Benitsubasa and Haihane froze at the sight of No.7. All the motherly hormones in Akitsu's body were cheering on her newly found anger, when she saw what had been done to her ashikabi/father of her coming daughter Makoto. Akitsu made the room feel as if an industrial refrigerator was cooling it. Benitsubasa, looked at the bulge on Akitsu's belly and made the connection between Akitsu's anger, the bulge, and the out-cold soldier. This made her sweat like crazy, despite the very low temperature in the room.

Yashima ran to Marlowe, and started feeling him all over to see if he was hurt, Sweetwater managed to tell her that besides a large bump and bruise on his head, he was fine. Kocho glared at her new rival for Sweetwater's affection, and Haihane only shrugged it off. She grabbed on to Sweetwater, and was seductively rubbing her finger across his chest. Kocho was steamed by this action and began groping Sweetwater too, he was having many men's dreams and other's nightmares.

Karasuba returned and glared at Akitsu, then her eyes made their way down to Akitsu's belly. She put on an act of false joy at Akitsu's pregnancy, and congratulated her on the baby. Akitsu simply gave the black sekirei a cold stare. Then Karasuba called her cronies to follow her, and take both their leave and Benitsubasa's prize. The members of bad company, sekireis included, were outraged at Karasuba's declaration, Akitsu especially. Karasuba warned them that since Miya isn't there to protect them, and without the suits no one can stop her without risk of heavy collateral damage. Karasuba ran to Sweetwater with frightening speed, and pointed her sword at his throat, she playfully asked him to step away from her subordinate's trophy or die. He was scared beyond almost all capacity to function, he looked to Sarge who begrudgingly told him to step back. Haggard made a move for his rifle, but Haihane was quick to discourage this with her blades. Benitsubasa scooped up Preston, and the three of them left the building making their way back to MBI tower.

The rest of bad company made their way to the window watching in anger as the disciplinary squad left with Marlowe in their possession.

"We can't just stand around with our thumbs up our asses, let's get Marlowe back!" Haggard shouted proudly.

"We can't Haggs, if we storm the tower now the plan will fall apart. I don't like this anymore than you do, but we have to trust that Marlowe can get himself out of this shit show. Uzume needs our help first, we do that then we wait for Marlowe to come back, if he takes longer than a day we'll get him the day after tomorrow night. No one gets left behind Haggs, not now or ever." Sarge said pragmatically.

"I swear on my honor, that evil witch will pay for taking our friend." Haggard said raising his fist.

All of bad company gathered around and prayed for Marlowe to come back on his own. Akitsu sobbed at the kidnapping of her husband/ashikabi, while Yashima and Kocho comforted her. Homura looked down on Karasuba from the roof and Karasuba shot a glare at him making him gasp. The disciplinary squad's leader smiled evilly, proud with the blow she had just dealt to her enemies and their morale.

Benitsubasa was happy to have her captive prince charming, and Haihane simply grinned and laughed manically. They were all pleased with themselves about their show of force and spoils of war. Deep down though, Benitsubasa and Haihane were a little guilty, for what they did to Akitsu and Yashima. Mostly Benitsubasa, she had never really felt guilty before, except when Karasuba chastised her, but that was mostly fear. Haihane and Benitsubasa wanted to return to the tower faster so they parted ways with Karasuba.

Then Karasuba crossed paths with Miya, the landlady of Maison Izumo threatened her to never set foot in her home again. Karasuba taunted Miya about her personality and speed. She threw an apple at the ready to pounce Karasuba. The two of them parted ways soon after. The whole time Miya was unaware of the kidnapping of Preston.

BACK AT MAISON IZUMO

All the tenants were gathered around the TV as Minaka declared that the whole city now belongs to MBI. The residents all had their opinions on the matter with Minato making the conclusion that everyone is now open to search and seizure by MBI. Matsu stated that this declaration confirms that the sekirei plan is now entering phase 2. She gathered the guys, and some of the girls, in her room to explain. She finished up with the warning to prepare for war, and Sarge responded that Matsu had no idea. Minato grimly looked at the city with his own thoughts about what would come next.

In bad company's room, Uzume had shown up and was wondering where Preston was, they told her the truth. They promised to help her first, then they'd wait for Marlowe to free himself, if he takes too long they will go get him back on their own. Uzume was angry that Karasuba had taken Marlowe, but happy to have her ashikabi saved. They all made their way to the Humvee, and sped off to free one friend at a time. They reached the hospital where Chiho was being held by Higa.

THE HOSPITAL

(Play the song: Kryptonite by 3 Doors Down)

The team strutted down the halls of the hospital making their way to Chiho's room. They knocked on the door and a small voice told them to come in. The guys had brought Kocho to interface with the suit and guide it to help eliminate the disease. The nanites would need manual input to help cure the brain disease.

"Hello Uzume. Who are these people?" Chiho asked.

"They're good friends of mine Chiho. They're here to help you, and maybe even cure you." Uzume answered with hope in her voice.

"That's right little lady, me and my buddies here, are gonna do our best to help you however we can." Haggard said proudly.

"It's not a guarantee but it's a chance. And sometimes a chance is all you need." Sweetwater said setting laptop on the nightstand and plugging wires into it and Haggard's suit. The guys sterilized the suits and Sweetwater stuck a needle into the suit through a small access point. He hooked it into the IV bag, the nanites began to leave Haggard's blood stream and enter Chiho's. Sweetwater helped through the use of the laptop, to guide the nanites in destroying the viral cells, and disguising the nanites as white blood cells so as to not upset Chiho's immune system. Kocho put her hand on Haggard's suited body and began working with Sweetwater using her power to help guide the nanites.

"It's all looking good everyone, wait a minute…." Sweetwater started to say but cut himself off.

"What's up sweets?" Sarge asked concerned.

"The disease is affecting certain processes, including the link between Uzume and Chiho."

"I thought you said it was good." Haggard said with a raised eyebrow.

"We have to permanently sever the bond between Uzume and Chiho. It's affecting the part of the brain that is being used for the link. If we don't do it, then we can't destroy the disease, and it will spread all over again. Either you two stay connected, and Chiho will revert to her untreated state, which will kill her, or we let the nanites do their job and the link is broken forever. What's it going to be?" Sweetwater stated seriously.

"That's not funny guys. I like that you're trying to be funny, but this isn't funny." Uzume said crossing her arms in denial.

"It's for real Uzume, we have our moments but this isn't one of them." Sarge said sighing with sorrow.

"You can't be serious…" She started to say but Chiho interrupted her.

"Uzume it's okay, if you don't want to…." Chiho replied but Uzume stopped her.

"If it saves your life Chiho… then fine." Uzume said accepting the truth

"Are you sure? once we do this there's no going back." Sweetwater said cautiously.

"Do it before I change my mind." She huffed.

"You heard the lady sweets. Time to save a life." Sarge said Proudly.

"Here goes nothing!" Sweetwater said pressing the confirmation key.

Then Uzume and Chiho screamed from intense pain in their heads as the bond was quickly ripped apart. Haggard held Uzume tightly and gripped Chiho's hand. They screamed and the window glass began to crack. Sweetwater told them to hold on a little longer and it would be over. The nanites accelerated the process and finished the procedure. The pain began to subside and Uzume and Chiho fell unconscious. Sweetwater checked their vitals and they were fine, rest was all they needed. The guys celebrated their victory, it was a little empty though without Marlowe.

MEANWHILE IN THE DISCIPLINARY SQUAD'S SUITE AT MBI TOWER

"Ow I feel like hammered shit." Preston said to himself out loud. 'Where in the hell am I? The last thing I remember was getting knocked out by that pink haired chick.' He thought rubbing his head.

Just then the TV in front of him flicked on and a certain lunatic popped on screen.

"Ah, Mr. Marlowe, we have much to discuss." Minaka said enthusiastically.

'Son of a bitch.' Preston thought sadly.

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: Yeah looks like Marlowe is in a world of trouble. Higa just lost his big trump card too.


	12. War Stories

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 12: War Stories

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

'Here I am in the heart of enemy territory, being interrogated by the head of a corporation, that is holding over a hundred-people hostage in his game. Destiny's a bitch like that. Now I have to figure a way out of all this, killing bad guys is easy, escaping prison is hard.'

"Ah, Mr. Marlowe we have much to discuss." Minaka said with his usual gusto.

'Son of a bitch.' Preston thought miserably.

"It would seem you've become the ashikabi of No.105. Because of that, I'm prepared to forgive all past transgressions, and allow you to work for me. Of course, you will have to deal with your meddling team mates." Minaka offered slyly.

"If I refuse?" Marlowe said not showing any fear.

"Then you will have to stay here, under lock and key. I've anticipated the arrival of your compatriots, should they mount a rescue attempt…" Minaka said calmly.

"Then what?" Preston asked flatly.

"I don't want to spoil the surprise, now do I? Hmm, no I don't." Minaka said jokingly putting a hand to his chin.

"I refuse to work for a man who holds my friends and family hostage, for his own entertainment." Preston said scowling.

"That's too bad, you're just like Takehito, I had a contract written and everything, oh well. Enjoy your stay at my fine establishment. Consider this place your gilded cage. I wouldn't attempt to leave if I were you, your sekirei Benitsubasa is responsible for you, and she hates responsibility." Minaka added comedically.

"So, what she's my guard dog or something?" Preston asked with a raised eyebrow.

"In a manner of speaking, yes. You catch on quite well for a simple foot soldier." Minaka said impressed by Preston's intelligence.

"I'm guessing this is Benitsubasa's room, right?" Preston said observing his surroundings.

"Astute deduction, you are her responsibility and like any possession, she wants you kept safely locked away." Minaka retorted.

"Great that explains the décor." Preston said crossing his arms.

"Goodbye Mr. Marlowe, I hope your stay will cause you to reconsider my offer." Minaka said with the screen shutting off.

'Time to get to work on getting back to the guys.' Preston put a hand to his chin.

Benitsubasa walked into the room a few minutes later. She began to get frisky with her ashikabi. She shut the door, locked it, undressed and the rest of that night was fun for her. Preston barely said a word.

BACK AT MAISON IZUMO

Miya had learned of Marlowe's kidnapping by the disciplinary squad and was furious at Karasuba's theft, even if he was Benitsubasa's ashikabi. The gang explained to her that Marlowe would come back on his own, if he didn't, they would mount a rescue. The guys decided to tell her a little bit about their plan so as to calm her down and ease the situation. When she heard their plan, she perked up at the thought of putting an end to the game, and setting the sekirei all free. After Chiho and Uzume had recovered, Sweetwater scanned Chiho for any remaining viral cells, she was cured.

The damage was done, but at least it would never get any worse, and she no longer had to fear for her life. they brought her back with them to Maison Izumo where she would stay with Uzume. Haggard was thanked by both girls for his service, and by thanked…Uzume became his sekirei, and Chiho would share with her. Haggard was enjoying being a real lady's man. That night he and Uzume partied hard, and by partied…slept with each other in the humvee. Haggard had the sinking feeling there might be a little Haggard eventually since he forgot a certain necessity, but only time will tell.

THE NEXT MORNING ON A BRIDGE LEADING OUT OF THE CITY

(Play the song: Urban Chaos: Riot Response Theme song)

The checkpoints set up by MBI were harassing citizens who wished to leave. A couple of teenagers, a boy and girl, were attempting to sneak through the checkpoint. They had almost made it when Haihane appeared in front of them and warned the to turn back. The girl urged her ashikabi to turn back, he defied the disciplinary squad member and jumped over the railing of the bridge with his sekirei as MBI's troops came running behind them. Then as if by a miracle, a loud turbo assisted humvee rolled in at top speed. This vehicle was the signature truck of Bad company, with their epic logo spray painted on the side.

"Haggard, get on the gun, lay down some cover fire! Sweetwater, be ready for a snatch and grab." Sarge ordered to his remaining troops.

"On it Sarge! Out of the way road hog!" Haggard shouted as he fired a barrage of static rounds at Haihane.

The guys scooped up the fleeing teens, and outran the MBI soldiers. Haggard who was on the gun, flipped the bird to Haihane. Sweetwater waved hello to his violent sekirei. She simply grinned at Bad Company's retaliation to the disciplinary squad's previous declaration of war, and blushed at Sweetwater's gesture. The vehicle swerved side to side as the confused teens fought with their saviors, who they thought to be MBI troops. The guys eventually convinced them that they were there to help.

They dropped off the teens in the safety of the northern section of the city and drove on back to Maison Izumo. The guys knew that a certain evil corporate heir, was particularly furious about losing another valuable asset to the good guys, again. All three of them knew his retaliation would be swift considering their continued interference with his plans. After Preston's abduction, Sarge had given the new policy that until further notice, no one leaves without a suit, and they must be worn at almost all times. Haggard was counting down to the rescue operation. Sweetwater had hoped to use the suits' cloak abilities to sneak into the building undetected. Sarge knew that if the plan had to go into action early, then so be it.

MEANWHILE IN MBI TOWER

Preston was enjoying a whiskey at the mini-bar reserved for the disciplinary squad. He kept mulling over the ideas he had to escape. He also remembered how Benitsubasa had her way with him, he was powerless without his suit to fight back. He couldn't shoot his way out, Karasuba would enjoy taking off a limb or two. Or Beni, as she liked to be called by him, would probably snap his spine, or crush his rib cage. Then maybe Haihane, would probably cut him to very bloody ribbons, for breaking Beni's heart.

Beni, treated him like a dog, he either obeyed, or got a heavy punishment. She enjoyed being frisky with her ashikabi, Preston would be lying if he said he didn't enjoy it. But his heart mostly belonged to Akitsu, he could feel her and Yashima's sadness at being separated. Beni was keeping him on a very tight leash today. Hence why he was drinking, heavily. Preston remembered his uncle's drinking problem, and knew to avoid becoming addicted to it. Beni, was standing nearby looking up a dress online, for when she would marry Preston, after winning the contest. To her it was something of a dream come true, even though she was ruining someone else's. Just like a spoiled child, she ignored that fact, and kept on flipping through the pages.

Karasuba despised Preston, but showed civility since he had bested her once. Now though, he was all bark and no bite without the suit, which suited her just fine. She lorded the fact over him like crazy, finding his reactions to be entertaining. Haihane kept asking him questions about her ashikabi, Sweetwater. Preston knew he'd be in a world of hurt if he refused, so he played along, and told her all about Terrance Sweetwater. She had starry eyes about her nerdy new jersey knight. Preston was slightly unnerved by the slasher's change in demeanor at the thought of the nerdy smart guy of Bad Company.

Preston's drinking eventually lured his nemesis to the bar, and they decided to share a drink. Karasuba admitted that if they had met under different circumstances, he might've barely been worthy of being her ashikabi. Preston was torn between being humbled by that, and disgusted by the idea due to her extremely violent nature. Sure, the rest of the guys liked killing their enemies, but Karasuba was a bit excessive. He figured the what if, that maybe he could have softened her slightly. Or maybe she would just try to kill him when he wasn't wearing the armor to protect himself. He then figured, maybe only another super soldier, like the Master-chief from the halo series could probably rein her in.

His thoughts were interrupted by Beni's attention grab, and by grab, grope. She then dragged him to her room and toyed with him once more. Preston shuddered before the door slammed shut, and he was treated to a mix of pain and pleasure. Beni seemed to be something of a violent little princess, if he successfully avoided riling her up, she was pleasant to him, if she was disturbed, he regretted it badly. After that was done, Preston sat on couch and began writing in a journal he had been provided, he guesses that Hiroto may have had something to do with it. He began to write his memoir, Tales from the Battlefield: Bad Company. Beni and Haihane were curious about his stories and decided to read what he had written. Though she saw clips, she never truly knew what he had experienced until she read his journal.

When the time came, she asked Preston to tell her and Haihane what exactly bad company did.

"Do you really want to know the whole story?"

"Yes, please." She said making puppy dog eyes at him.

"Fine, it all started when I was transferred to the 222nd army battalion…" Preston began to tell them his life's whole story. The two girls listened intently, hanging on every word Preston spoke as he told them his epic tale. They cooed with wonder at the legend of the legionnaire's gold. Preston then told them of how his team blundered into serdaristan chasing the gold bars. Next, relayed how they rescued the leader of serdaristan, and escaped from captivity by Russian forces.

Serdar led them to the gold in the Caspian Sea, and they dropped him off on a small desert isle. The two girls were captivated by his storytelling skills, even Karasuba had stopped to listen. He then regaled them with the epic battle to kill the legionnaire once and for all, then take their epically awesome, hard earned, loot. After the legionnaire's defeat, they made their way back to the warehouse to find the military taking it all away. He told them how they fooled a sergeant into letting them drive away with a truckload of gold, only to get caught later. Karasuba and Haihane cackled with laughter at the last bit.

Preston finished his story, and decided to go to sleep for a while, to think on his next method for escape. He went into Benitsubasa's room and fell asleep in her bed. Benitsubasa went to her room and laid in the bed with her ashikabi. She was in bliss, Preston shifted in his sleep and she hugged him tightly. Preston out instinct reached his arm around her, she blushed at this and smiled. in preston's head he was working out what to do, finally he decided to try and sneak into the armory, steal a parachute or grapple gun to escape to a nearby building, and run like hell. The ranger training, he received taught him the basics of stealth, that was a major boost to his chances. A huge obstacle, was the three harpies that were currently guarding him, especially his pink haired Cerberus. When he found the chance, he got up and decided to try his luck.

(Play the song: Mission Impossible 2 Theme)

Preston slipped Benitsubasa's arm off of him, took a bobby pin, and quietly made his way to the hall, while avoiding waking the other sleeping sekireis, especially the extremely vicious Karasuba. Preston saw bunch of motion detectors and lasers in the hall, he knew that if he tried to escape that way it wouldn't end well. He picked a locked office door and used the vent on the roof to get around. Using the vent system, he reached the main elevator shaft, then he landed on the roof of one of the elevators. The elevator was pad locked, he used his trusty bobby pin to pick the lock again.

After hearing the click, he opened the lid to reveal a guard holding a key ring. Preston snuck up on the guard and knocked him the fuck out. Preston then made his way to the armory near the penthouse, and skillfully avoided tripping any alarms. He reached the armory, and found it had more than one lock, a passcode was needed to open the door. He remembered a piece of paper he found on the guard, it happened to be a jumble of numbers. He guessed that it was the code for the door, and was met with success. He heard the door beep, and looked both ways, no one heard it. He wiped his forehead in relief, and walked inside the armory.

After tooling up, and grabbing spare armor, and a uniform, Preston used a silenced M9 pistol to shoot the locks off of the doors to the stairs. He made his way to the roof, then he prepared his grappling gun, and fired it at the nearest building. At that moment, the unthinkable happened, Beni woke up. She looked all over for Preston and found nothing. She hit the alarm, got dressed and chased after Preston. The rest of her team wasn't far behind her, they expected this from Marlowe, a soldier like him doesn't stay caged easily. Preston heard the alarm sound throughout the building, he could see a chopper turning around, and making its way to the roof to apprehend him. He decided to let it get there, and take it for himself. The chopper landed, and he got into a shootout with the team of MBI mercenaries.

He took cover, and fired his M9 at the enemy soldiers. He hit one in the head, and ducked down to take his next shot. He flanked around and killed another soldier, took cover and opened fire on the last trooper, killed him, and threatened the pilot. The pilot got out with his hands up, and Preston took the chopper. The disciplinary squad, and a whole bunch of MBI security personnel, made their way up to the roof. Preston lifted off just as they ran out of the access door. He gave them all a two-finger salute as he flew through the night sky. Several other choppers had been dispatched to bring him in, Benitsubasa shed a tear as Marlowe had escaped from her embrace.

He flew through sky without a care in the world until the radar started going crazy. He knew his lead wouldn't last long, he swapped radio channels to B-Company's frequency.

"Any station this net, this is Bravo-One-Charlie, Pvt. Marlowe speaking. I escaped captivity, need immediate assistance, Mike-Bravo-India is hot on my heels. I say again Mike-Bravo-India is on my ass, need immediate reinforcements." Preston hoped his call would be heard.

"Sarge here, I read you loud and clear Marlowe. It's good to hear your voice again, new guy, over." Sarge said happy to hear from Marlowe.

"Seriously Sarge? Anyway, I need emergency extraction, MBI is hot on my trail and I can't shake them, it's their sky, over." Marlowe explained, worrying about recapture.

"Roger that Marlowe, we're loading up now, send the coordinates, and we'll be there on the double." Sarge said reassuringly.

"I copy, sending coordinates now, over and out." Marlowe cut the transmission.

Suddenly, a swarm of MBI choppers blanketed the sky. A few of them were attack choppers, one was moving in to engage Marlowe's Blackhawk. He deployed the countermeasures, dumping his flares. The enemy attack chopper responded with a hail of lead, aimed at the transport Blackhawk's tail rotor. Preston tried to dodge the incoming rounds, but enough of them hit the rotor to knock him out of the sky. The Blackhawk began to spin out of control, Marlowe lost all pressure in the pedals, and the chopper came closer to the ground with each second. He put out a mayday call to Bad Company, before crashing and blacking out.

Preston heard gunfire, then he heard the voices of bad company. Haggard dragged him out of the wreck, to the humvee and threw him into back seat. He hopped on the gun and Sarge floored it, gunning the motor, and engaging the nitrous. Sweetwater tried to secure Preston, while the humvee swerved to avoid incoming weapons fire. The team drove to the northern section of the city and back to friendly turf of Maison Izumo. After reaching friendly territory the guys unloaded Marlowe from the humvee. Akitsu and Yashima were happy to see him again, Akitsu kissed him while her eyes were flooded with tears of joy.

-END CHAPTER-


	13. Prep Time

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 13: Prep time

A/N: What's up people of the inter web, I'm back baby. Sorry 4 the wait, and that I'm not too good at writing dialogue. I'm currently working on another story at the same time as this one, so I hope you all understand why I'm taking so long to finish this one. The updates will slow down but I'll do my best to keep up the fire. That said, enjoy the story everybody! **Please review people.**

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

'MBI didn't take too kindly to my escape but, at least I'm free. It has been a hell of a ride so far. Ugh, I keep feeling a sense of anger or jealousy, it's probably from Beni's reaction to my escape. I swear, that girl is probably plotting just how she can get to me again. If anything, I'll be ready this time, the guys are with me in their suits, not to mention all the other tenants are prepped for the unexpected. Now all we can do is wait again until the moment to strike back against MBI once and for all presents itself.'

The day after Preston's great escape things were already falling back into the semi-normal rhythms. Preston had decided to skip outdoor leg day for the foreseeable future, at least he had a treadmill now. Minato was busy cleaning with help from musubi and he stumbled across Matsu who was feeling playful until Kagari showed up and scared off Minato. The guys were doing their exercises in the room, push-ups, sit-ups, even pull-ups by using the door frame. Akitsu, and the other bad company sekireis ogled at their ashikabis working out.

Haggard finished his jumping jacks and showed off his guns (flexed arms) to Uzume who playfully narrowed her eyes and grinned. Preston was bench pressing 180Lbs of weights, he had Sweetwater spotting him. The two of them switched off every so often to let the other rest and use the equipment. Sarge was on the treadmill running vigorously and sweating up a storm. The run was giving him the well desired burn, sure it hurt but it was a necessity. The girls were all happy to see their ashikabis working out, showing off the physiques their military experience had given them, bolstered by the intense work out.

Preston stopped to get a drink, and Sweetwater asked Preston to bring him a water bottle. Preston agreed and the two of them enjoyed a moment of rest. Musubi walked in, and asked Preston if he could go with her and Minato to speak with some new friends of hers. Preston agreed and suited up, this time he'd have Musubi around to watch his back, so it would be less hazardous to leave the building. Musubi went outside, grabbed Minato and bolted off, Preston raced after her.

The group reached Minato's old apartment, and went inside to speak with the new tenants. At first the boy and girl were tensed at the presence of Preston, until they remembered the armor, and figured out that he was with the soldiers who rescued them. Minato assured them that he was a good friend, and is in fact a participant in the game. The group relaxed and everyone began to have a pleasant conversation about life. Minato and Shigi realized their similarities and fist bumped in camaraderie. Preston mused about his bro-time in b-company. Shigi noticed the difference between them was their sekireis.

Shigi then felt he could trust them so he explained his predicament about wanting to escape from the city and gain their freedom from the sekirei plan. Preston, Minato and Musubi sympathized with them. Preston then began to inform them all of bad company's coming plan to beat down MBI and free everyone from the game. Shigi was a little skeptical of the idea, but Preston told him about the immense power his armor possessed. Shigi told Preston that while that sounded good, the sooner he and Kuno could escape, the better off they'd be. Preston and his friends agreed on the fact, and promised to help Shigi and Kuno escape. Preston offered up the idea of one of bad company's earlier plans to escape, Operation: Live Free.

On the way back to Maison Izumo, Preston explained the particulars of the operation. Minato summarized that it would be a dry run for what was coming later. Preston agreed with Minato, Musubi tried to console the saddened Minato on the matter. Preston gave a thumbs-up, and stated that with Bad Company on the job anything's possible. Minato was given some hope by Preston's charisma. The two ashikabis were now bro-ing out with hope.

LATER

Uzume was out with her friend Kazehana, the two of them stumbled back to Maison Izumo drunk beyond measure. They reached second floor and accidently walked into Minato's room… it was going to be a rude awakening for him in the morning.

The rest of the guys (Except Haggard who was busy ranting at Minato for mistakenly sleeping with Uzume) ignored what happened that morning, and Preston presented the situation to the guys. Sweetwater backed Marlowe's promise to the people they had rescued the other day, with the fact that their aid in the escape would serve as a test run for phase 1 of Operation: Die Hard. Sarge agreed, and Operation: Live Free, would now serve as their first real retaliation strike against MBI.

Sarge stepped out for a moment to think, and Kazehana was standing at the door.

"Well hello handsome, I love a man in uniform."

"Hello ma'am. I'm sergeant Redford, I'm guessing that you were part of the reason Haggard is barking Minato's ear off."

"Yeah, … so that's his name, eh?" Kazehana said cluing into the situation.

"Haggs, shut the hell up, and stop scaring the poor boy!" Sarge shouted, defending Minato.

"He should learn before he lays with-" Haggard started to say, before being cut off.

"I don't care who started It! It ends now, Got it?!" Sarge demanded cutting off Haggard.

"Yeah sure Sarge." Haggard grumbled, walking away from Minato who sighed in relief.

"Good. Now since that business is over, I never got your name miss-?" Sarge asked Kazehana politely.

"Kazehana, I bet you know about the sekirei plan, don't you?" She responded curtly.

"Yes Ma'am, that bastard in his damn tower is keeping me, my boys, and their girls from going home."

"Well then why don't you do something about it?"

"Believe me ma'am, we will. I swear if that looney bastard's hit squad comes after us again, there will be hell to pay this time."

"I'll hold you to it red."

"Call me Sarge, everyone does." He offered her his hand and she shook it.

"Why don't take off that helmet, I bet you really are handsome under that bucket." She said seductively.

"Eh, why not." Sarge pulled off his Nano-Suit helmet, not seeing any arm in taking it off.

"I was right, you really are handsome Sarge." She said rubbing her finger across his torso.

"Thanks, Kazehana, you're really pretty yourself." He said making her blush.

"Don't tempt me hot stuff, I might just have to have some fun with you." she teased.

"Ma'am I'd like to see that sometime, that is if you want to?" He flirted back.

"It'd be my pleasure, Sarge." She flirted again.

'I Think I'm in love!' Sarge screamed happily in his head.

"Don't just stand there, take me out for dinner tonight handsome."

"Yes ma'am, 8:00pm sound good to you?"

"I'll tell you where we'll eat after I get back then."

She left, and while no one could see it, Sarge pitched a tent under his armor.

"Well Sarge, looks like you've got a lady friend-" Haggard nonchalantly shuffled over to Sarge.

"Haggard, if you don't shut your mouth-" Sarge growled with a raised fist.

"You won't do that cause you love me Sarge." Haggard joked.

The next day, Kazehana, Minato, Musubi, Shigi, Kuno, and Bad company, decided to pay a visit to their good friends Seio and the twins. The reason being, to ask for his help in aiding Shigi and Kuno's escape. Bad company would also fill him in on their own escape plan, including the bonus for being a "US Contractor".

Seio was already willing to help the group in the first endeavor, for a price. Minato played a little dirty and called Miya to 'persuade' him. When Sweetwater mentioned the plan for later, and the dollar signs…Seio couldn't resist the smell of green and capitalism.

Back at Maison Izumo, Matsu and Tsukiumi discussed the particulars of their ashikabi's plan. The two of them argued philosophy before Tsukiumi stormed out in a huff. Shortly after that Miya and Kusano ran into a sad Tsukiumi. Miya and Tsukiumi further discussed philosophy, after Miya gave Tsukiumi the look, she admitted to envying the people whom the others sought to help. She envied the life they now stood the chance of attaining together, free from persecution, and to live their lives as they saw fit.

Miya saw through Tsukiumi and she begged the landlady not to tell anyone her newfound reasoning to be the strongest. She also admitted that she somewhat envied NO.7's relationship with her own ashikabi. The fact that they would soon have a new child to care for only served to deepen her envy towards those around her. The fact the Preston was a member of the American military's upper echelons, made it seem exactly like a band of brave knights had come to free them from their predicament. Of course, these guys were usually anything but knightly.

Back with the others at Seio's place, the others were discussing the plans. The northern sector proved to make for the best escape hatch. The first problem was the satellites, the death lasers were going to be a very huge problem. Haggard and Musubi barely outran the blasts when Matsu was having her fun with them.

This time they would be dealing with MBI's much more serious operators. Who would be under orders to blast them to bits. Sweetwater proposed hacking the system with Matsu and Kocho's help. Shigi was amazed by the skills of Minato's friends and sekireis. Haggard and Sweetwater acted smugly about it. Sarge and Preston, shook their heads at the two other knuckleheads.

The group also factored in that Karasuba and the D-squad would be gunning for capture over death when it came to Preston and Sweetwater. But they considered Karasuba's reckless abandon and affinity for blood, it was most likely if they were going to be taken alive.

no doubt it would be grisly for them and a pleasant outing for the murder happy black sekirei. Not to mention Preston had sort of broken the surprisingly fragile heart of Benitsubasa, who would not rest until she violently retrieves her ashikabi, and would probably be more than happy to discipline him for running. Preston grimaced from the thought of a very angry/scorned Benitsubasa. While Sweetwater was mixed between fear and arousal at the idea of his own, lovely yet still frightening sekirei, Haihane.

Minato was confused for a moment at who they were, the others cleared it up. Needless to say, after a lovey dovey moment between Kuno and Shigi, which musubi brought up, the time had come for a badass monologue.

"…Anyway, I'm not happy about not getting paid this job, but I'm more than happy to help with the escape. Well, are you guys ready to kick us some MBI butt?" Seio said with narrowed eyes and a grin.

"Hooah!" the guys shouted unanimously. Minato and the others all shared their own cheers.

"Well I wish you the best Minato." A slightly drunk kazehana said seductively.

"Uh, thank you?" Minato scratched his head.

Sarge let that one slide. "Kazehana, you and me are going to get a drink later."

"Looking forward to it big lug. I might just make you my ashikabi at this rate. By the way last night was amazing." Kazehana replied. Sarge smiled proudly at his own triumphant moment of manliness. Haggard and Sweetwater snickered and Preston made them knock it off.

MAISON IZUMO HOURS LATER

The group had gone to Matsu to further plan their ambitious endeavor. After that was over they all had a nice dinner together, Sarge and Kazehana popped open a bottle of Haggard's homebrewed booze and drank themselves silly. Haggs's family whiskey recipe was definitely Kazehana's new favorite only seconded by sake. Shigi and Minato discussed their ideas of the future. Minato got up and spoke with Tsukiumi. Preston decided to speak with Shig once he had managed to tear himself away from his two loving sekireis.

"What's up Preston?"

"I heard you and Minato talking, is it cool if add my two cents?"

"Okay. But I don't see the reason for staying other than that you're a soldier."

"The way I see it, my reasons for being here are not just to stop that crazy bastard running this bullshit game because I was told to anymore."

"Not a good enough answer for me."

"Sure, I have my orders, but this is personal now, they came after me, and threatened my family, Shigi. Minato and the rest of us are in this for the long haul, because we have to end this. As much as I hated what she did, I could feel Beni's desires, she wants love more than anything, mine specifically."

"That I can understand. But who is beni?"

"She's one of the disciplinary squad. The one that attacked you, is sweetwater's, the guys told me. No matter what you say, I believe there's a chance to save them from themselves. If anything after this is over, I hope I'll see you and Kuno later at my place in Nevada for a victory barbeque."

"You're on Preston."

"Cool Shigi, I hope you and Kuno enjoy your life together."

"Thanks."

Everyone who wasn't underage, drank their asses off. Haggard and Uzume ended up in the backseat of the truck again, doing exactly what you'd think they were doing. A drunken Preston crashed out and his girls carried him to the room for the night. Sweetwater was enjoying his night with Kocho. They sat on the roof looking into the night sky, Sweetwater and Kocho kissed. Kocho remembered what she had read once, 'nerds make the best kissers'. That saying proved to be very true at that moment. Sarge and Kazehana went to the room, but passed out before anything that would upset Miya could occur.

'Damn you Haggard you took the only safe spot for the fun.' Sarge thought in the back of his head before knocking out with his girlfriend.

After a day had passed, the time had come to commence the operation. The boys loaded their guns, Matsu and Kocho furiously typed on their consoles, and the rest of the team stood outside ready to charge into battle. The night would be fraught with peril, but the end result would stick it to the man.

-END CHAPTER-


	14. Fistful of honor

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 14: Fistful of honor

A/N: Sorry I didn't get this part out in time for the 4th of July! But I hope this makes up for it!

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

'You know how even the best laid plans go to shit? Well we went off the reservation and decided to wing it. Turns out hijacking a tanker of natural gas isn't as easy as it looks, but it's a lot more fun than sneaking around. Once Matsu hit that button… we decided to do something stupid, and really fun. It's worked for us in the past, so might as well try it again."

"Time to earn our pay and raise some hell boys!" Sarge bellowed from shotgun, aka the passenger seat.

"Aw hell yeah, I've got the pedal the floor!" Haggard beamed with road rage while at the wheel of a stolen gas tanker truck.

"Enemy vehicles 12 o' clock!" Sweetwater shouted as a small MBI convoy had been dispatched to intercept them.

"Faster, faster! Ram 'em out of the way!" Preston ordered. The rig plowed through the military vehicles like they were tin cans and bowling pins.

"The rig's hitting overdrive, time for us to bail!" Haggard announced as he and the guys began their exit strategy.

"Don't forget to set the C4!" Sweetwater hollered.

"Check!" Preston confirmed.

"3… 2… 1 Jump!" Sarge ordered to his troops. The guys leapt off the rig as it smashed into the MBI blockade. Preston hit the detonator and the C4 caused several awesome explosions, resulting in a chain reaction blowing up the ordinance MBI Was going to use to stop their advance.

"That is a work of art. Better snap one for the portfolio." Haggard marveled at the small mushroom cloud left the blockade in front of the bridge.

"Not the best time for that Haggard!" Sweetwater nagged.

"Nobody asked you numb nuts." Haggard grouchily replied.

"Knock off the grab ass! Karasuba and her cronies are nearby, don't let your guard down." Sarge

"How do we know for sure?" Sweetwater asked cautiously. A large boulder came flying at them from out of nowhere. The guys dodged it and ran for cover. It hit a steel beam, shattered into tiny pieces, and bent the girder like a bendy straw. The culprit was none other than a Nano-suited Benitsubasa. Karasuba and Haihane stood beside her, their colorful MBI Nano-suits glistened in the moonlight.

"That's how! You never ask for shit sweets, that's how jinxes happen!" Haggard ranted.

"Well now what do we have here?" Karasuba asked rhetorically with a disturbingly light-hearted tone.

"It looks like a few strays decided to break the rules." Benitsubasa said with a devious tone.

"Look Benitsubasa, it's our lost little tin soldiers." Haihane said mockingly.

"Happy day, I can't wait to take them home, so I can break mine." Benitsubasa cracked her knuckles.

"Neither can I Benitsubasa." Haihane smiled.

"Now, now, before the fun starts I think we should pick dance partners." Karasuba advised.

"There's four of us and three of you! Even with your suits you can't take us all." Sarge pointed his rifle at Karasuba.

"Half of me believes you, but the other half… well that's another story." Karasuba said passively as she engaged a shock function her sword, and suddenly disappeared and reappeared behind the guys. She stabbed Sarge through the torso of his Nano-suit with a sickening crackle and pop as her sword pierced both sides of the suit's protective layers and overloaded the power supply from the intense shock.

She tossed a badly bleeding Sarge away like a crumpled tin can. "You killed Sarge!" Preston charged at Karasuba pulled out his combat knife. The sparks flew as the two of them clashed blades. Benitsubasa locked horns with Haggard clashing fists, as Haihane engaged Sweetwater with him firing his M60 in a frantic effort to pin her down.

"Do you really think you can beat me with an oversized steak knife? It's so pathetic it's almost laughable." Karasuba chuckled with sick amusement.

"You witch… you'll pay for this!" Preston dropped the knife and started slugging at Karasuba like a half-crazed Wildman.

"That's more like it. Hahahahahaha." Karasuba continued to avoid all of Preston's berserk punches and grabs.

"What's the matter I thought you wanted to hit me. C'mon stop trying to hit me and hit me." Karasuba enjoyed playing with Preston's mind as he continued to only hit air. Then Karasuba seemed to leave an afterimage as Preston, landed a punch on her only for it to phase right through his opponent. Karasuba reappeared behind Preston in an attempt to repeat her slaying of Sarge. Preston caught on and ducked to the left.

This caught Karasuba by surprise, and Preston got right under her and landed a massive elbow strike to her abdomen. The sheer force alone sent her flying into a steel girder with a loud bell toll sound ringing throughout the entire arena. Karasuba grunted in pain as she recovered from the impact. Preston charged in an attempt to cut off her breathing room. Karasuba narrowly avoided the strike from Preston's iron fist. The girder groaned as it bent like a paper clip from the continuous strain.

Karasuba saw hew chance for a retaliatory strike as Marlowe stopped his rampage to let the power supply recover. With her opponent out of breath, Karasuba took her chance to stab through his shoulder. Preston cried out in agony as the blade ripped through him like a hot knife to butter. Karasuba removed her blade and grabbed Preston by the throat. She then began to slam her adversary against the ground repeatedly, the pain and destruction she wrought was giving a her high she had never felt before.

"Did you think that you could best me with your little toy suits? Now that the playing field is level once more I am invincible. Does it hurt knowing you failed? I imagine it must sting quite a bit. I think I'll go toy with your other teammates. I'll enjoy killing the Texan, as for your little nerd… well since I can't kill him I suppose breaking him like you will have to do." Karasuba wiped the blood from her blade and started to walk away.

Preston's life flashed before his eyes, the war, his home, his family, his friends. Then as if by an act of god, he felt Akitsu and Yashima's hands on his shoulders. They appeared before him as if like angels giving him the strength to live. Akitsu commanded him to stand, and Marlowe began to rise. His suit's battery started to reach max charge, in fact it was going over the scale into a supercharge.

(insert song: You're going down by The Sick Puppies)

"You won't touch them." Marlowe boomed.

Karasuba stopped in her tracks. "And why is that."

"Because I'm not going to just lay down and die." Marlowe replied.

"What are you blathering on about now?" She turned around to face her adversary.

"I will not let you hurt my family anymore." Marlowe snarled.

"If you haven't been paying attention, there isn't anything you can do to stop me. You can barely stand as it is human." Karasuba grinned.

"Appearances can be deceiving." Marlowe replied cryptically.

"I've had enough, you bore me tin man." Karasuba slashed at him only for her strike to be avoided with hardly any effort whatsoever. Karasuba dismissed it as luck and slashed again only for history to repeat itself. She began to get annoyed by the constant missing of her blade.

"Why won't you hold still and stay down?!" Karasuba said through gritted teeth.

"Why don't you let me see what you've really got?" Preston grinned and made a gesture with his fist for Karasuba to bring it on.

"What was that you worm?! You dare to mock me?!" Karasuba attempted to lop off Preston's head only for him to catch it with two fingers from his right hand.

"What's the matter I can't be harder to kill than an animal. Right?" Preston said in a calm and confident tone.

"Well then… it looks like I finally have a real challenge!" Karasuba stopped and grew a small smirk, then she resumed slashing and choping erratically. Marlowe just continued dodging, with a shit eating grin on his face. He used his cloak to step back and disappear. Karasuba probed for her enemy, prodding at the air and looking for a shimmer. She had the idea to slash at the ground and kick up dust. The trick worked and revealed Preston's location. The soldier was more than prepared and jumped high into the air, Karasuba saw what he was doing and leapt into the air to meet her foe head on.

Marlowe dodged the blade once more and landed a punch upside her head. The two of them crashed to the ground leaving behind a small crater. Preston stood up, and gazed down on the unconscious Karasuba, at that moment he held her fate in his hands. He could kill her and end her reign of terror once and for all. But that wasn't his style, he wasn't going to kill someone while they were down, even if she was despicable. Instead he left her there in the hole and made his way to Sarge, at first it appeared he was dead but Preston removed the helmet and saw Sarge breathing. The suit had unfortunately started to grow into the wound in order to stop the bleeding. Preston was just glad Sarge was alive, and with that he sat down and fell unconscious from the tremendous beating he'd suffered.

Back with Sweetwater and Haggard, the two of them were still battling it out with Benitsubasa and Haihane. The slasher was actually trying not to eviscerate her ashikabi, but if she had to… he wouldn't be walking home in one piece. Haggard had drawn his modified rifle against Benitsubasa and let off a burst of shock rounds at her, she ran around her opponent until the magazine went click. Haggard didn't waste a second and primed a pulse grenade, he pulled the pin and chucked it at Benitsubasa who had a shocking revelation: pulse grenades really sting.

Benitsubasa flailed around in shocking pain from the grenade overloading her suit's systems. Haihane turned away from her fight for a moment to glance at Benitsubasa. This was all the time Sweetwater needed as he fired his M60's static discharge rounds at Haihane who quickly dodged and continued to avoid the stream of gunfire. Haggard moved in to try and take down Benitsubasa who recovered from the overload and avoided Haggard's heavy strike. She smiled in victory as she got inside Haggard's guard and flailed him around like a rag doll. Benitsubasa slammed Haggard on the ground repeatedly in an extremely violent temper tantrum even by her standards.

Haggard was dazed and confused from the constant slamming, and possible concussion. Benitsubasa casually walked up to Haggard and threw into the air with a heavy uppercut. Using her agility, she quickly outpaced him as he continued to rise, then she got above him, locked her knuckles together and slammed him back into the ground at terminal velocity. Haggard was barely conscious as his opponent brought her boot down on his helmet and began to press down with the raw force of a trash compactor. When she felt she had hurt him enough, she decided to help out Haihane with subduing Sweetwater.

Sweetwater drew his pistol, he fired the entire magazine of static rounds. They had the desired effect on Haihane with her convulsing and screeching in pain. But Beni charged in with a brutal haymaker from behind, knocking him to the floor with a loud wham.

"Wham, bam, thank you Mr. man." Benitsubasa chuckled darkly as Haihane picked up Sweetwater.

Haggard being the tough son of a bitch he was, regained consciousness, and began to pick himself up. "Hey! I didn't hear no bell!" Haggard stretched and stopped when he heard the satisfying pop from his joints.

"Why you! So, I guess want to go another round, eh?!" Beni slammed her fists together.

"Bring it, because there's no way I'm letting you walk off with either of my friends again! I still owe you some payback for a few days ago, and I don't know about you but dying isn't much of a living for me!" Haggard engaged his max armor mode and charged at Benitsubasa head on.

"You asked for it rodeo clown!" Benitsubasa blocked the high speed heavy strike resulting in a small shockwave reverbing around them.

Haggard jumped back and found his rifle. He reloaded and took to air with a power jump. "Really, was that the best insult you had?! Sweets there has come up with better stuff on the fly!" haggard shot his mouth off as he fired his rifle.

Benitsubasa dodged the incoming fire and gave her retort. "Look who's talking tin man!"

Haggard hit the ground and continued his barrage. "That implies I don't have a heart, sweet cheeks. If you weren't Marlowe's girl I'd rip yours out for what you've done."

"We'll see about that you super soldier wannabe!" Benitsubasa shouted as she struggled to avoid the hail of automatic static round fire. Haihane sat back and watched as she sat on top of her unconscious ashikabi's back. This was Benitsubasa's fight, and she had no business near it when her partner was on the warpath. Haihane wondered to herself about a few things during this time. She seemed to almost lose interest in the epic clash that was occurring right in front of her. Then she witnessed Beni and Haggard enter a grappling duel, both combatants were deadlocked neither one seeming to overpower the other.

Benitsubasa backed off and took Haggard by surprise, getting under and around him in almost one entirely fluid movement. She then brought her augmented elbow down on his back at full force slamming him into the ground. The hit was devastating as Haggard struggled to rise again. Benitsubasa put her boot on Haggard's back and slowly pressed down forcing her opponent to stay down no matter how hard he tried to push up. Until he activated max power mode and knocked her off. Back with Haihane, Sweetwater groaned as he started to wake up from his K.O. the unfortunate soldier felt a weight on his back and he turned his head to the left to see his sekirei's claws hanging down in front of him. "H-hi. You're Haihane right?" Sweetwater asked feebly.

Haihane heard her ashikabi's voice and looked down to see her new jersey knight awake from his 'nap' and she smiled. "Yes, my beloved. I can't tell you how good it feels to finally speak with you face to face and without having to compete with that 'other' girl." Haihane expressed with a hint of jealousy in her voice.

"But why? Why did you do all this?"

"Why else I work for MBI, it's my job to enforce the rules alongside my friend Red and my boss Black."

"But you can stop this, please, for me."

"I wish I could my love, but I have my orders."

"Look your boss over there is down a few feet away from…. Marlowe! Marlowe wake up, please! We lost Sarge I can't lose you and Haggard too!"

Preston struggled for a moment to wake as he could hear Sweetwater's frantic voice which was muffled by his lack of consciousness. Preston managed to bring himself around and groaned loudly. "You aren't getting rid of me and Sarge that easy sweets. But I can't exactly move, to tell the truth my body feels a little numb right now."

"Oh, thank god!"

"Heh, I thought you didn't believe in god sweets." Preston chuckled.

"I guess you could say this has been an eye-opening experience for me…. Uh Preston…" Sweetwater pointed to the space behind Marlowe.

"What sweets? Oh…wait never mind." Preston stopped his question when he saw a familiar unfriendly feminine shadow looming over him. Karasuba retracted her armor and revealed her normal uniform that had some alterations for her to be able to wear the suit.

"That actually hurt tin man. My armor really took a beating, but I'm still in one piece. I guess I'll just have to make do without it for now." Karasuba violently smirked.

"Aww shit…" Preston tried to get up. Karasuba just pinned him to the ground with her foot.

"Now, now, I'm afraid our little game ends here. Just stay down. Benitsubasa, finish that other one and then we'll have a little fun with those friends of theirs." Karasuba shifted her gaze to her red subordinate.

Benitsubasa and Haggard wound up for their respective last-ditch efforts for victory. Haggard pulled back his fist and engaged max armor mode, Benitsubasa did the same. Once both fighters were ready, they charged each other head on. their fists collided one last time and Haggard was knocked back to the ground. Benitsubasa's armor was heavily damaged from the impact thanks to the inferior quality of her MBI Nano-suit. She retracted the armor and stood victorious over her defeated opponent.

"I win farm boy."

"This isn't done with…." Haggard tried to get up one last time.

"Shut up." Benitsubasa curb stomped Haggard's head and he was down for the count.

"Haggard!" Preston and Sweetwater shouted.

"Stop whining you two, he's still alive. Barely." Benitsubasa replied sternly. Sweetwater out of one last act of desperation reached his right hand to his belt area and pulled the pins on his remaining pulse grenades. The spoons popped, and in 5 seconds they went off shocking him and almost completely frying the systems of Haihane's suit. She endured the pain for a short time before retracting the suit and gasping for air. Preston began to chuckle, which vexed everyone else. Karasuba simply chalked it up to him going mad, until Preston gave his answer.

"We didn't need to beat you…. we only needed to get you out of your suits."

Karasuba and her cohorts went wide eyed with astonishment, they hadn't realized until now that the armor was their trump card and now they had none. That was when the other sekireis of maison Izumo appeared, Musubi cracked her knuckles and readied up for a fight.

-END CHAPTER-

A/N: for those of you who may have forgotten just in case, MBI's suits are just knock offs of the N.1s. Sarge isn't dead, he's just down but not out, the true nano-suits can take far worse such as when prophet fell from orbit in crisis 3. oh one more thing the suits they're using look like the USMC suits from Crysis 2's multiplayer not Crysis 3 just to clear that up.


	15. Fistful of honor part 2

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 15: A fistful of honor part 2

A/N: Now before anybody aims their guns at me, I'm sorry this has taken so long but I have run into some major problems as of late and for that I am truly sorry. Plus, I have another long story to which I must devote my time. Finally, some reviews at last!

[F-14 Tomcat Lover: I want to thank you so much for your MacGyver and A-team suggestions. Dude, I was so thinking about that! In fact, they are where I have some inspiration from already.]

[Sabre Commander: you have raised some valid points, but I'm determined to finish what I've started. I will take your advice into consideration though. I've already started making changes here and there. Rest assured bad company will get 'back to basics' eventually. I have big plans in store for later… let's just say that 'Tombstones' make interesting 'Company' and I don't mean death in any way, shape or form …yet or ever.]

[Greyassasin: thank you for your interest in my awesome tale.]

[Everyone: Now I am going to try to take a different approach here so bear with me okay.]

'Thinking/Preston's view'

"Talking"

Karasuba gritted her teeth in outright anger and frustration. She and her cronies of all people had been duped by a group of highly accomplished morons, and was now standing on the wrong end of both a number and power advantage. Not only was Musubi standing in front of her but so were Uzume, Yashima, and Tsukiumi. Two of which were utterly furious at what had become of their beloved and cherished ashikabis. Uzume was completely dressed in her veiled sekirei attire, and from the looks of it she had formed several tendril-like spears of cloth from her veil.

If Haggard was still conscious he might have drooled at just how sexy Uzume was in that outfit. Preston was finally ending his fit of laughter, and Karasuba was just about to silence him. But just before she could do that, Yashima charged in and swung her hammer at Karasuba. The Disciplinary squad's leader dodged the mighty blow with her still superhuman agility. Yashima continued to swing furiously at her opponent but only kept hitting the floor and air. While the impacts would be devastating it didn't mean a damn if she didn't land the hits.

Karasuba smirked and retaliated with a near missing slash at Yashima, the hammer wielding sekirei stumbled back in her efforts to not be skewered by the blood thirsty Karasuba. It was at that moment Musubi charged in to try and save Yashima from Karasuba's wrath. But Benitsubasa got in her way and the two fist types brutally clashed. Uzume was the next one to enter the fray, and attempted to save Yashima from being butchered by a more than angry Karasuba. Suffice it to say, her bloodlust was beyond its normal levels and was now bordering on general insanity.

Tsukiumi summoned her water and sent a massive wave across the bridge at a high speed. The Maison Izumo sekireis dodged to one side while MBI's elite went to the other. This time Uzume clashed with Haihane, while Musubi continued her slugfest with Benitsubasa and Yashima despite being afraid of Karasuba swung her hammer in fury once more. Tsukiumi valiantly attempted to aid Yashima by using her powerful water attacks against the vicious sword wielder. Yashima had picked the wrong battle as she quickly learned the hard way that Karasuba got to where she is at MBI for a reason as Karasuba viciously countered the hammer swings from her inferior numbered opponent. Tsukiumi arrived to help out the struggling hammer wielder, and she quickly ordered Yashima to get her ashikabi as well as the rest of bad company off the battlefield. Yashima vigorously nodded in agreement and made her way to the bruised and battered Marlowe and dragged him to the far end of the bridge, back to where he and the boys started the entire battle.

After making sure her ashikabi was safe, Yashima did the same for Sarge, Haggard and Sweetwater all while running through the chaos that surrounded her. She looked to one side and saw Musubi land a magnificent punch to Benitsubasa's face and witnessed the pink haired pugilist's brutal retaliation. Next, she saw Haihane duking it out with Uzume as the two fighters clashed, with Uzume using her veil and ribbons as her spears and shield while Haihane kept slicing through her attacks whenever possible. As the two of them faced off Yashima could swear she saw bright orange sparks fly from the clashing of Uzume's veil and Haihane's gauntlet blades. In fact, there was an ominous orange glow around the whole battle at the points of conflict, with almost everything else going slightly gray for a brief moment.

Karasuba and Tsukiumi were causing quite a bit of destruction as the bridge's structure groaned from the continuous strain of heavy combat. Preston Had enough of this, and despite his extreme pain he rose from the ground, engaged the suit's speed enhancement, and ran to Karasuba. Out of nowhere the last thing she expected was her other rival to charge in land a haymaker to her abdomen. Karasuba was clotheslined and landed flat on her back. Karasuba flipped herself back over and swung her sword while Marlowe took up a boxing stance and slugged the sword wielder once more. The playing field was level again and Marlowe used that to his advantage now that he was on par with Karasuba again. Tsukiumi backed off and returned to Minato who was tending to their friends.

In Karasuba's mind she could barely process what was happening, she had been at the apex of her might a true bringer of doom to the enemies whom she faced. How could it have happened, she knew the why of it but how? How could this happen to her? As much as she didn't care to admit it her teammates were not to blame. Neither was it her faulty suit, albeit the thing was now a useless hunk of junk on her back. Then there was the fact that these other sekireis were now rising up to face her, without even a tinge of fear in their hearts. Not even a look of discomfort, only a straight up ridiculous amount of righteous fury directed at her and her team.

She knew her first four opponents were powerful but without the Nano-suits they were nothing to her, yet this man before her continued to rise again and again despite his severe beating. Now he stood united in once more. It was just impossible to the black sekirei, it just couldn't be happening to her, it couldn't. Could it? The entire idea was driving her mad like the rabid dog Miya believed her to be. Once again Karasuba lost her cool, out of pure rage she charged at Marlowe. In the single blink of an eye, he'd miraculously stopped her katana's blade cold. It was just within barely half an inch of his Nano-suit helmet's face plate.

The others proudly cheered at the display of Marlowe's unbelievably awesome heroism in the face of his psychotic nemesis. Marlowe found his combat knife from earlier, and yet again clashed blades with Karasuba. The sparks from their confrontation gave a brief orange hue to the air around them and for a moment it was if time froze. Musubi was grappling with Benitsubasa, Haihane was in midair performing a flip to evade Uzume's veil spear jab. The view then focuses on Sweetwater, Minato, and Yashima who were cheering on Marlowe to kick Karasuba's ass. Time speeds up again and Marlowe Pushes Karasuba back and jabs her in the stomach.

Karasuba spit up blood from the impact and was tossed like a beaten ragdoll. She managed to get on her knees and clutched her stomach as well as the handle of her katana. Musubi knocked back Benitsubasa who covered in bruises and crouched on one knee. Haihane was grabbed by one of Uzume's veil ribbons and slammed around like a ragdoll then she was tossed away and landed flat on her chest. Karasuba signaled to her partners to keep attacking their opponents, but Marlowe decided to stand in Beni and Haihane's way. Sweetwater and the others looked on in utter confusion at Marlowe except for Musubi. For some reason oddly enough, she understood what Marlowe was about to do. Needless to say, the idea of peace with them made her smile brightly.

He stood like a solid wall of steel with both his left and right arms stretched outward to the sides. Haihane was ready to swipe at the man of steel but surprisingly enough, Beni was the one to stop her by putting her hand in front of her to signify that it was over. Haihane looked over to her best friend in confusion, but Beni reassured her it was time to stop this insanity. Since it would just be pointless to keep fighting the people they care so much about. To say Haihane was completely speechless was an understatement especially coming from the brutal fist fighter and hot tempered Benitsubasa, the last she would ever expect to hear that from. Sweetwater and the others dropped their jaws at this since earlier Beni had curb stomped haggard, yet Marlowe wasn't fighting them only stopping them. Sweetwater partially understood why after his logical side decided that she only did that to please Karasuba. But he knew both Haggard and Sarge would have a hard time with their forgiveness, especially Haggard.

When Haihane looked back at the still fuming Karasuba, she became torn between her duty to MBI and the people she cared about. Both her friend and her ashikabi had now pleaded with her to end this. Karasuba was shocked in disbelief as the two individuals who had been chosen to stand beside her were doing the very thing they had been handpicked to contain, it snapped something within Karasuba. Her friends, her allies, were now her betrayers. It made her blood boil hotter than the fieriest magma on the planet

Haihane leaned down and helped up a nervous Sweetwater to his feet. She smiled warmly at her ashikabi and surprised the hell out of him. Beni looked pleadingly at Marlowe, and he seemed to understand. "I'm sorry…Preston, for everything. I… want to stop this. *sigh* I love you, and I want to take responsibility for what I've done. Please can you find it in your heart to forgive me and Haihane."

"You already know the answer… Beni." Preston opened his visor and smiled. "First, though a few friends of ours are going to leave. Are you okay with that?"

"Alright, but only for you." Benitsubasa smiled and kissed him on the lips. Her wings beautifully lit the place up and then peacefully faded. "You traitors! How could you do this?! I chose you! Minaka chose you! All for what, for these weaklings?!" Karasuba fumed.

"We're done taking orders from you Karasuba! Do you hear me?! Every day, you were always such a bitch to us! You treated us like pawns, the very few times you showed any sentiment to us was when we earned your high and mighty approval! We strived to follow you, and stuck by you because we were afraid of you! That ends here and now! You are not the boogeyman anymore Karasuba. From this point forward Haihane and I will forge our own destiny! Right Haihane?" Benitsubasa fired back in a storm of unsealed fury. Karasuba was once again stunned, the fear was gone and without the fear what was she.

"You know me too well red." Haihane smiled slyly as she leaned on her ashikabi who was still a little nervous. "I don't know about you but I'm keeping the outfit as a memento."

"Fine by me, Okay so whoever is leaving had better go now." Benitsubasa said with mock impatience. On that note, everyone who was able to said their goodbyes and Shigi and Kuno strolled across the bridge without a care in the world. As Karasuba could hiss angrily as they passed with the others there to keep her in check. They reached the tunnel just as MBI's satellite grid reactivated and violently split the bridge in half. Shigi and Kuno gave one last look at the city with their friends waving goodbye and shouting to them from the bridge. After a brief moment, they smiled and continued down the tunnel to freedom. Haggard had begun to recover and woke up groggy like a train hit him. "Ugh, why do I feel like I had a gallon of tequila and an ass kicking?" Haggard had begun to scan around and noticed the pink pugilist who beat seven shades of shit out of him along with her claw handed friend.

"The ass kicking part's true… now uh Haggs before you freak out-" Preston said cautiously as he tried to calm down his Texan friend.

"What the fucking hell are these two doing here?!" Haggard began to rant. "Uzume is that you?!" Haggard said in astonishment as his girlfriend blushed.

"I'd be more concerned about their former boss over there on the bridge." Preston tried to change the subject.

"What the hell are you talking about?! There's no one there!" Haggard pointed out the obvious as it seemed that Karasuba had escaped in all the excitement.

A little blinking imaginary outline appeared around where Karasuba was before she disappeared. "She's gone, how did she do that without us noticing?"

"Because no one was paying attention dumbass!" Benitsubasa scolded the two flatfoot soldiers.

"Doesn't matter anyway, what matters is that we medical attention, badly." Preston said as the suit's combat stims wore off and he keeled over on the floor unconscious. Benitsubasa rolled her eyes and hoisted her ashikabi over her shoulder, while Musubi carried the heavily wounded and still slightly bleeding Sarge, and Uzume supported a pretty messed up Haggard. While a few individuals in the group were still standoffish, no one could deny that Beni and Haihane had turned their backs on both MBI and Karasuba.

Soon enough, they all made their way back to the apartments, and at first Miya wasn't exactly happy about the newest tenants. Preston and Sweetwater swore up and down that their newest additions were trustworthy. Haggard was griping about this new development the whole time and remained suspicious of Beni and Haihane. Preston had to work extra hard to make sure Beni wouldn't knock his friends head off the first chance he got since they kept arguing. But of course, this was all after they received serious medical attention.

Coincidentally, it was from a group of C.I.A. and C.E.L.L. operatives. One of them being their new secondary secret handler, agent Doyle. But he just preferred to be called Doyle. When they all attempted to ask how Doyle and his whole team arrived in the heavily guarded and nearly impenetrable fortress of a city, they only got one answer. "That's classified, and before you ask, as something you don't need to know, period. But a military man, and another unnamed benefactor, send their warmest regards for your valiant efforts to proudly serve your country." Since a certain tech savy redhead hadn't been at her computers, no one had any way of finding out just how they got here. But everybody knew who sent them, and the reason for why they came. Two very powerful people on their side were heavily invested in this, and what was good for one was great for the other. Ah, American capitalism in all of its glory in a very proudly shining moment.

-MBI TOWER-

Since his forces had been too distracted, Minaka had no way of preventing the American C.I.A., and Hargreave's errand boys C.E.L.L., from getting into his game. This royally pissed him off something fierce, for once Minaka Hiroto the game master and evil genius himself, had been played for a fool. Now his most reliable asset had been cut down to size by two members, and his opponents now had two more valuable pieces in their box. Then as he was fuming to himself, a brilliantly devious idea popped into his mind from the ocean of intellect.

"If that wily old man is going to bring his aid to play in my game, then I will do the same. After all, what fun is a 'war game' without some good escalation and higher stakes to go with it? I am the game master!" He grinned devilishly and picked up his phone to make a special call, to another smaller corporate adversary. The young Mr. Izumi who had also been annoyed by these so-called 'battlefield heroes' was happy to accept a very special challenge. The offer was for a special event and a great reward if he was successful.

-Back at Maison Izumo-

The girls, Minato, Seio and the special operatives had all agreed to give the boys their moment to celebrate. Doyle had paid Seio his contract fee, and the man was more than satisfied with his reward. 800,000 dollars, all of it in cash money, courtesy of kind old Uncle Sam. He cried when he saw that full case of cash and knew he'd never go hungry again. The lightning twins had to pry that case off of him when they took their share for him being a mooch. Minato and all his sekireis had another heartfelt moment and a round of bickering over his affections for each of them. Miya let it slide this time since was pretty funny to watch. Kazehana kissed Sarge, and it was a well-deserved reward with something even better coming soon.

"We did it! We fucking did it guys!" Preston said as they sat in the room together for a victory drink.

"I'm in heaven right now. Two beautiful girls, one happy ass me! Hell Preston, you've got three and kid coming!" Sweetwater said proudly.

"Aw shucks sweets." Marlowe scratched the back of his head.

"Whew, boys it hurt like hell, but that was some damn fine and outstanding fun!" Sarge grinned proudly for their major victory over the forces of evil.

"You said it sarge! Things are looking up from here on out! Here's to the badass-itude of the baddest company in this whole damn town, and the upcoming roast of MBI! HOOAH!" Haggard shouted as he raised a glass of his homebrewed moonshine.

"HOOAH!" The boys all shouted together and downed a shot of the finely brewed moonshine.

"They come at us, and we'll be waiting!" Preston smirked as he slammed the shot glass down on the table.

"Damn straight! As long as we're still kicking, this game is as good as over!" Haggard raised his free fist in the air with a smile on his face.

"That crazy jackass had better watch out, because here we come!" Sweetwater bragged. They all had no idea of the shit storm that was brewing under their noses. It was all going to catch up with them, because no matter the action there will always be a consequence.

-END CHAPTER-


	16. Calm Seas

Battlefield: BAD COMPANY: Birds of Prey

Episode 16: Calm Seas

A week had gone by since the showdown on the bridge and the team was all healed up. Sweetwater had gotten to work on the suits that Beni and Haihane wore, and managed to fix them up with Kocho and Matsu's help. It turned out that Hargreave knew quite a lot about what was going on in the city. The fact that Hiroto was trying to use knock off Nano-suits against his own, made him consider sending some schematics to help upgrade the two suits of Haihane and Benitsubasa, since they had joined bad company's endeavor. Things had been surprisingly quiet around town while the team was out of commission and trouble had been out of the question since they kicked the hornet's nest. For Preston it had been eerie, this city was far too full of crazy shit to just go quiet like this. Needless to say, he was on edge. These days in Shinto Teito the fighting isn't what made him concerned, it was the lack thereof. Sarge agreed with him, but Sweetwater and Haggard had let their guards down to enjoy the comforting silence.

Today started out like any other, things were pretty normal, well as close as normal could be for the tenants of Maison Izumo. After breakfast, the guys all went to do their own things. Sarge worked on the Humvee while Sweetwater, Preston, Haggard, and even Agent Doyle were all in bad company's room playing a friendly game of poker. Once dusk came around, the cell operatives sat down to begin watching, placing their bets on who would take the pot. Sweetwater had a slight edge in the strategy department since he had watched plenty of card games and learned a trick or two. Haggard had the experience since he used to play all the time with his family back in Texas. Preston looked around the table and saw his comrades were all playing to win this friendly game. Doyle made a bold move and raised, Haggard called his bluff. Doyle revealed two pairs of 4, Haggard had three of a kind. Haggard took the cash, Doyle was determined to win it back. Preston decided to call Seio over and see if he was up to join the friendly game.

Meanwhile with the rest of bad company's girls in the living room, Benitsubasa was sitting down reading an American magazine titled 'Pugilism Illustrated', Haihane was busy sharpening her blades with a whetstone the boys had provided for her. Kocho was busy running some calculations and diagnostics for the Nano-suits on her new laptop. Kazehana was sleeping up in her own room after she had a long night with Sarge. Akitsu was reading up on baby books and what not to prepare for her coming child that she would happily bring in to the world with her husband. Yashima was sitting down next to her helping out, and trying to help her bond sister practice caring for the child. Akitsu felt the baby kick, and smiled at the little signs of life her child showed. Her anger spiked a bit though when she looked at her other bond sister, who simply kept reading her magazine. Yashima noticed this and looked to her other bond sister with courage in her heart.

"You know Benitsubasa, you could help us with this. You've been in bed with him too. So, you probably have a baby coming just like Akitsu, don't you?" Yashima with her small burst of courage asked the lazy pink-ette.

"Pfft, that's a long way off, so I suggest you leave me alone. Besides, that's for Akitsu's baby not mine, I think I'll have our man do all the other work. If anything, all I'm going to do is breast feed mine with these puppies after I give birth." Benitsubasa sneered at her bond sister as she fondled her own decent sized breasts with a confident smirk.

"That'd be unfair to Preston, he's done nothing but show kindness and love to all of us, and forgiveness to you, especially after you were the one who kidnapped him! So, don't be so lazy Baka!" Yashima snapped at Beni's carelessness.

"What did you say to me runt?!" Benitsubasa said as she put down her magazine, and stomped over to Yashima, who shrank back against the wall. Akitsu stopped reading, and glared at her pink haired bond sister, silently expressing her desire for Beni to back down. When their eyes met with each other the room started to grow cold from Akitsu's abilities. Kocho stopped her work for moment, and walked over to her fellow sekireis of bad company. A little spark could be seen between Beni and Akitsu as they began the battle for the title of matriarch.

"What are you going to do ice queen, huh? You don't scare me. I can take whatever you dish out." Beni goaded the already annoyed Akitsu.

"Ladies please, let's not start any fights in here! Miya wouldn't like that one bit, and she's much scarier than Akitsu or Mr. Redford." Kocho said as she got in between the quarreling bond sisters.

"Don't remind me Kocho, ugh." Beni grimaced as she was reminded of the landlady's power to strike fear into almost anyone, even herself. Akitsu's eyes widened slightly in fear too, as even her husband would have a difficult time protecting them from Miya's wrath.

"Exactly, besides you would be putting Akitsu's baby Makoto at risk if you were to fight." Kocho being the smartest one pointed out that fact.

"Grr, fine but that doesn't mean this is over! Sooner or later we'll decide which of us is the true matriarch." Benitsubasa said arrogantly as she sat back down to read her magazine. Akitsu glared at her bond sister, and just shook her head before returning to preparing for her baby girl.

Minato and his girls were up to their usual antics and giving him all kinds of headaches. Seio arrived with an unusual amount of gusto, he really flaunted his newfound wealth. Miya spotted him and within the span of 2 seconds Seio's attitude changed drastically. The twins followed him up to b-company's room to watch the poker game. Preston folded and decided to go spend some time with his girls. He went into the bathroom and strapped on his own Nano-suit, since he and the boys remembered what happened before. In this town you could never be too careful, otherwise you paid the hefty price for being too lax.

Preston saw Miya doing some cleaning, but other than her no one else was around even Uzume was gone. But Preston figured she was probably out with Chiho, doing whatever it is they do together when they aren't with Haggard. It wasn't any of his business so he just kept on walking to where the girls were. It didn't sit right with him, there was an itch he had alright. It kept nagging at him constantly as he walked down the hall. He knew something big was coming, there's always a calm before the storm, always.

He thought back to when he and his brothers in arms set Chiho and Uzume free from the clutches of Higa Izumi. Plus, they'd outsmarted one of the smartest psychopaths on the planet, and now they had upped the ante with C.E.L.L. and C.I.A. reinforcements. There was no doubt in his mind that Hiroto wasn't going to take that lying down at all. At this point if things were going to get wild, then it was going to be soon, he could just feel it in the air. His ranger training told him the answer rather loudly as he'd earned those instincts with pride. The old saying was the enemy of my enemy is my friend after all. So most likely they'd work together, or at least one wouldn't interfere while the other does the heavy lifting. He shook his head at the idea, but then he recalled noticing strange activity such as a few glints and other suspicious randomness that was far too coincidental to be random. He then bumped into one of the C.E.L.L operatives, one of Hargreave's best soldiers, Mitchel Reeves.

"Hey Preston, what are you up to man?" Reeves asked the super soldier.

"Just going to see my favorite girls, you know same old, same old. But there's something off in the air, I don't know what, but my gut's agreeing with me." Preston replied and warned Mitchel of the suspiciousness.

"I get you, I'll have my guys get on their night patrols." Mitchel said coolly.

"That's the thing, haven't you noticed something going on when your guys are making their rounds? There's been someone watching us, and I know we've made powerful enemies around these parts." Preston voiced his concerns loudly to the security team leader.

"I've noticed alright, there's always something going on. If anyone wants to knock this place down it'll take a lot more than a few baddies with superpowers. It's my job to keep an eye on your team and the suits, that came from Hargreave himself." Reeves shrugged off Marlowe's concerns.

"You don't know this place like my unit does Mitch. The shit we've seen happen is like watching a high-octane TV show!" Preston tried to reason with him.

"We'll be ready Preston; besides we've got every angle covered, motion tripwires, hidden mines, and hidden cameras. No big bad wolf's coming to blow this house down." Reeves said coolly, trying to reassure Marlowe that the area was more secure than Fort Knox in Kentucky. It didn't ease him one bit but he just had to deal with it, for now. Back with B-company's girls, they made it to the subject of sekirei measurement day coming up. They all started thinking about their figures amongst themselves, most of them began to bicker to each other like competitive sisters, and birds of a feather.

"Hmph, with my new figure I'm sure to best the best out of all of you!" Beni said proudly pumping her fist in the air.

"Oh, I don't think so red, I'm sure I'll be in first. You can have second or we could tie but hey miracles happen, just like my nerdy knight." Haihane said with a smile on her face and made an effort to make herself look sexy.

"I think Akitsu will be the winner considering her pregnancy has enlarged her breasts along with making several other physical attributes more appealing for her husband as well as to support the child." Kocho chimed in which made Beni steamed beyond measure.

"Who asked you brainy?!" Beni snapped at the brain-type sekirei.

"I'll have you know I'm am in fact the smartest among us, and I can most certainly calculate a competitive roster between all of us if that is what you wish!" Kocho snapped back, refusing to be bullied by the physically superior pink-ette.

"Is that a challenge?! Besides, it'd be biased in your favor if you were the one to make the list!" Beni argued to her fellow bad company sekirei.

"It most certainly would not arrogant knuckle dragger!" Kocho shouted at Benitsubasa and figuratively butted heads with her.

"Would so four eyed loser!" Benitsubasa burned her opponent.

"Would not Neanderthal!" Kocho shot back, the sparks were really flying between brain and brawn.

"Why you-!" Benitsubasa reared her fist back in preparation to punch the brain type sekirei.

"Both of you calm down, have you forgotten Miya's rules?!" Yashima grew a spine and warned them of Miya's wrath.

"Oh, who cares about that hag?!" Benitsubasa said stubbornly and stuck here nose in the air.

"You're lucky she's not around to hear you say that Benitsubasa!" Yashima pointed at the pink-ette as she stated the obvious.

"Oh, I'm sure my ashikabi will protect me. My darling Preston would never let anything happen to me. He beat Karasuba after all, so who's to say he can't take that old bat." Benitsubasa said in ignorant confidence.

"Now I remember, what about the war with MBI? We might be wanted by them for what our ashikabis did to provoke Minaka. I'm afraid we might not get to participate at all." Kocho then rained on the event by reminding her fellow bad company sekireis of their status with the faction that runs the city.

"Oh, that's right, damn it!" Benitsubasa roared towards the ceiling in sheer anger.

"Actually ladies, I think I'll be generous and give you all a little reprieve." Minaka said as the TV in the corner of the room flickered to life.

"M-Minaka!" The girls all gasped in unison at the sight of their ashikabis' enemy.

"Despite what your ashikabis have done to… antagonize me, I have decided to allow you to participate in the measurements. I will make sure they receive the message as well, it's only fair I suppose. Two of you may have betrayed the company and Karasuba not to mention myself as well, but I suppose a clean slate is in order. That said, I will be paying very close attention from now on. Besides there are several inquiries I wish to make about some of you." Minaka explained the reasoning behind his sudden generosity. The girls had no inkling of his other dealings and he decided to allow Higa to do his dirty work. So, making an offer of peace on the surface would be his card to play at this time. Plus, it would allow him to study the properties of the children that currently resided within the wombs of some of the sekireis at Maison Izumo.

"Them being?" Benitsubasa narrowed her eyes in suspicion. She trusted her former employer about as far as he could be thrown, and she could definitely throw a very long way if she wanted to. The other girls were also thinking of the ways they'd settle their vendettas with the mad man. The room began to cool slightly again as Akitsu glared at the screen and rubbed her belly protectively. She felt Makoto kick again and mentally promised her child no harm would come to either of them. Yashima stood next her bond sister in solidarity against the power mad psycho who was speaking to them on the screen.

"Ah, my dear you'll just have to find out, now won't you. I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise, now would I? Tata for now ladies, I'll make contact with the rest of the house in due time. Enjoy the pardon ladies, I'm sure you'll do fantastic at your measurements in the coming days." Minaka said cryptically and then the TV shut off abruptly, leaving the room in silence. Then Preston walked into the room and looked over to his girls with curiosity at the looks on their faces. It was a mix of joy, anger, suspicion, and smugness.

"What's going on in here?" Preston asked with a puzzled look.

"Oh hubby I'm feeling so frisky right now…" Beni shot over to Preston and purred while rubbing a finger across his chest.

"He's mine pinky!" Yashima tackled her bond sister or at least tried to. Beni held her back with a smile on her face.

"Oh I have some good news for you Preston my love…" Beni trailed off while making every effort to appear sexy to her ashikabi. Preston was… both confused and aroused.

-END CHAPTER-


End file.
